Padili James Mikomangwa
Since the invention of the first phone from Antonio
Meucci, Charles Bourseul and Alexander Graham bell then to more sophistication onto the hands of Martin Cooper and Steve Jobs, human beings have been
awarded with a myriad of technological opportunities that to a certain extent
over dose our technology control capability.
From 1992 when advance mobile phone was devised to 2000’s
to the debut of the first Iphone from Apple, the entire technology community
has witnessed the vast expansion of communication and diverse transformation of
people’s culture, values and habits.
At present, technology has dispersed through out the
globe, even in remote areas within the Sub-Saharan Africa people get a hold of
handsets for communication purposes, a good friend of mine shared his vision
that: in the next 10 years Techno mobile phones will be rampant in Sub-Saharan
Africa, hence at the moment techno smart-phones models are every where in
Tanzania, but is the Tecno mobile users community utilizing the rich digital
space on their palms?
Now days anyone with a finger can see anything, at
anytime and share it to anyone s/he wishes. In this era of unprecedented information
gathering and dissemination, dictated with information syndicates every where,
having no gatekeepers to check whether information disseminated are structured
or unstructured, facts of false statements, lies or true stories, our society is
open to be gutted by various form of mediocrity starting from social media
images and videos, to opinion givers, instagramers, youtubers , meme enthusiasts
and social media political activitists.
Smartphones are driven by apps, it is with the app
capability that we operate our phones, from taking those amazing photos, to the
text messages and Whatsapp Messenger Emoticon chat room war, it is all possible
due to apps developed on fast track. But the question comes , are we really
worth of these apps functions?
The fact that these gadgets are called Smartphones, it
means that one way or another there should be a smart output out of every
function that these devices perform. However are these devices changing the smartness
we have or are we changing them?
Assessing the way people especially in towns use their
smartphones, there’s a very good chance that, these powerful devices are barely
scratching the surface. It is rare for an ordinary smartphone user to have a Language
learning app, work scheduler app, nor a book reading app. In may ways than ever
youth now don’t pray for their meals unless their phones didn’t come with a built
in camera, taking photos of meals and sharing is a new way of praying for food.
Our mirrors are now superannuated, a snapshot tells us
better our naked eyes on a mirror shows us ugly, unless a phone has a 360
camera app ,Instagram and Facebook is going to explode with young men and women
“artistic” images on a daily basis.
No new item comes without a package box, smartphones
came with a gift. Now I can communicate with a friend in Moscow and share good
life moments with my Grandma in the village. I can check my time and date easily
now, we are no longer apart from our loved ones not even boundaries can limit
the power of Whatsapp Messenger.
Zeroing down to the anticipated changes, that anyone
with a desire to see the world transformed by any human being ingenious
handiwork would like to see, sadly there is a great chance that we have barely
made a significant change to the human race problems.
In many occurrences, I found my self staring at a viral
video of a helpless man in car drowning to death while bystanders cowardly
press record for their digital space reporting news reporting. It is fine now to shoot a deadly, inhumane,
savagery scene and share it so that everyone can see your handiwork, being
human is a crime no more privacy, why keep your baby shower and labor pain to yourself,
while you can swipe that phones screen and touch camera, take photo, record and
share.
Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, 2017
quarterly report cited that currently we have 20 million internet users, this
is a gold mine for mobile services operators and digital space chaos for people
like me allergic to internet and social media mediocricy. These numbers speak
for them selves, with million users of such sophisticated technology is there a
need to adopt basic foreign technology?
A good number of Tanzanians utilize these social media
platforms and showcase their entrepreneurship activities, advertise their
services and products for business expansion. Why not use Facebook as local reunion
platform for people searching for their lost friends and family members and not
your digital album.
I believe if our minds were focused on digital community
solutions and not instant gratification, we would have reduced the number of
queries we ask Google search, if our Whatsapp Messenger groups we structured to
be information and knowledge rich and far away from the stupidity we float on
now. Why bother to ask a search engine what a smartphone is in Swahili , while you’re
an active member among 200 Whatsapp Messenger group members, unless your all dumb,
blind and deaf zombies.
Coming up with community digital solutions ideas is not
rocket science, we can utilize the technology we have at the moment to improve
the way our society behaves, enhance the quality of our lives and induce
real-life knowledge and skills to our young men and women minds.
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