Making the Most Out of Smartphones
I came across a few men and women using their smartphones just as cell phones of a decade ago. All they could do with the device was make or take phone calls. That is, though the device the person kept in hand has been latest Smartphone, he/she was using it as an ancient telephone handset. Surprisingly, some of those devices are high end models of Apple iPhones and much sought-after android phones such as Samsung and HTC. Obviously, for most of them, it is a status symbol. Their contemporaries are using smartphones; so, they also must carry one.
Well, my simple question to them is since you are shouldering the burden of carrying this slightly oversized Smartphone with you wherever you go, why not make use of it and in turn, render your life easier and a little bit modern. You may not use all the features of the smartphone, but at least you must be able to see your mails and send/receive WhatsApp messages and browse the internet to get updated with information on the go and make some purchases from Amazon or Flipkart of items that are not available in the local market.
Interestingly, these men and women are well educated and successful in other spheres of life. Some are retired persons who have concluded their working life in the beginning of the smartphone era. Some are businessmen flourished in their business in the past and now complaining that owing to denotification and GST business is dull. Some, including my wife, are housewives who really think that smartphones are evil things and most of the miseries of the world are due to these satanic devices. In general, they are also parents, and some of them grandparents, who get upset when they see their children or grandchildren come anywhere near to smartphones. Regretfully, I should say, it’s another foolishness they commit. The children will grow up and they are not going to be at their vicinity for long. When they are away from them, they will start using the smartphones, anyway. According to me, denying smartphones to children is denying education to them. We should not do it.
Let me tell you the story of Varun, a farmer’s son of Padam (Pathanapuram, Kerala) and how a college drop-out became a Techy Millionaire by learning Information Technology from internet. Born into a poor family, his life has been a struggle for existence from the beginning. Though the parents were uneducated, they wanted to see their son get educated as far as he could. For the family to survive, parents’ earnings were not enough. As such, Varun himself engaged in manual labour whenever time permitted. This strengthened him to become a sportsman when he was in school, St. Stephens HSS Pathanapuram. He excelled as a footballer. After passing Class X, he joined college with a scholarship from State Government as a footballer. At a point of time, he was Captain of Kerala University football team. An injury he got from football ground made him unfit to play football for some time. At that point of time, he decided to quit College. He went to Bangalore to find a job. He mastered English language by reading Novels and learning new words with the help of a Dictionary. He went to internet cafes and learned initial lessons in Information Technology. After working in in some BPOs for some time, he received a job offer from Singapore which he gladly accepted. While working he continued his studies about different IT branches. Joining hands with some likeminded friends he started his own company called Corporate360 (C360). Now the company has its bases in 36 countries.
When Varun was struggling to learn, he had to go to internet cafes. But now situation is different; every smartphone is an internet cafe. If we use it wisely, it would turn out to be a university. There are many testimonies indicating that the internet has been an immediate source of knowledge available and the achievers made use of it. Many toppers of Civil Service examinations revealed in interviews that they are indebted to internet as a source of knowledge. As such, please do not deny it to your children. Don't take away their opportunities to grow. Don't dampen their enthusiasm to learn. Let your children use smartphones as in other parts of the world and let them yield all the good results of it.
So not only that we should let our children and grandchildren use internet, we also should spend some time every day on the web. There is nothing to be ashamed of in learning what we do not know. We should know what is going on around us. Reading just one newspaper may not be enough to have a clear picture of what is going on. Maps on smartphones can guide us when traveling to new places. You will be able to reach your destination without asking someone every now and then. And, the funniest thing is that each one of us has a device that can be termed as one of the best available in the world. The sim card we use surely has a data pack as the data pack is cheaper than voice packs now a days. Only the thing, we don’t know how to make use of it other than for making and taking calls. Well, we are going to change. We are taking a step towards Digital Transformation; get ready.
04-Mar-2019
Mathews Jacob
Mathews Jacob