It’s phone, phones everywhere...but hey! This is 2017

Our previous column told a story of the loud chatting mother on her phone. Remember last week? Did you miss it? Our lovely, lovely mobile phones. Cell phones if you prefer American English.

You must have heard about the attempted bomb massacre in a London train seven days ago. I was at my local bank when I saw BBC news beaming this atrocity. A plastic bag burning. Images of a few injured and soon, the whole panorama.

Now we know the suspects were Syrian refugees, quite young; given sanctuary in the UK and spitting on it. The Swahili expression “Shukrani ya punda ni mateke...” (Show gratitude to a donkey and it kicks you), fits the tale...

Now we know the bomb (allegedly left in the train by the 18-year-old teenager, and went off at Parsons Green in South West London) was intended at much bigger train stations, i.e. Paddington and Earl’s Court (West London), where the casualties would have been catastrophic.

Instead a few people were injured with minor burns. These included schoolchildren and a pregnant mother who fell in A stampede of scared passengers fleeing the scene...

Let us observe a few things.

Vigilance.

Following the incident, you always notice similar patterns. People become more watchful. Upon entering buses and trains eyes scan other travellers. You can read alertness. On following days, police patrol most train stations. Again, the same story.

Alertness and vigilance only comes after episodes.

Not before they happen.

Normally when you enter trains in early morning rush hour (the device exploded around 8am), these days, most passengers have eyes glued onto their phones. It is phenomenal that 90 per cent of us just look at our phones. Everywhere. And I can imagine some travellers standing near the Lidl supermarket plastic bag (that held the explosives) without taking note because all we care are our gadgets.

Lidl is a German superstore selling reasonably cheaper goods of quality...and favoured by the low-waged and immigrants.

And so...

How many times do we bump into fellow pedestrians so engrossed with their phones that they are not looking at where they are going? Bump into you. Even becoming upset when it happens. Not saying “sorry”. Annoyed. The paradox of phones is we are losing control and connection with life and externals. There is a lot of digital information. Once you click on your apparatus there is so much to react to, we forget where we are.

We are obliged to RESPOND.

Facebook Messenger, YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, Tumbler, Instagram, etc. ALL DEMANDING ACTION. Not merely listening to videos but clicking LIKE to things we might not even genuinely cherish. We judge satisfaction according to the quantity of clicks.

I was reading a news report that said the younger generation are “growing much slower” now because they do not experience life.

London Metro reporter Jim Leffman:

“Researchers said...today’s 18 year old are really only 15 when judged on how “adult” they are compared with their predecessors. They believe it is a broad cultural shift that could be linked to them spending too long online to get involved in other things...”

For those familiar with Instagram, for instance, might have come across some celebrities. I follow a couple, mostly out of curiosity. The Hollywood actress Scarlet Johansson is an interesting case. Whenever she posts a photograph of hers (with partially revealed breasts) you notice over two thousand LIKES within a couple of hours. Comments reach hundreds too by mostly guys writing how they love the Danish-born star in several languages (Spanish, Danish, Arabic, etc). This interaction between the famous and their fans is, amazingly, 21st century.

The other day, I was bewildered when Bob Dylan, the legendary poet and musician, clicked LIKE to one of my videos. I follow introspective conversations that Ziggy Marley, the Jamaican reggae singer, writes. When Tanzanian Bongo flava star Diamond did a clip of his Zilipendwa song I got the news right away.

No wonder we are so hooked to our phones.

Two decades back, these phones served one purpose solely: speaking and making calls. Right now phones are everything – banking, pictures, communication, betting, sex, etc.

No wonder the middle-aged and older generation fail to keep up.

The other day a 52-year-old friend was cursing a female he had just chatted up.

“I say let us meet. She says we should chat on Facebook. I don’t want to chat on Facebook. I want to meet. Smell. Smile. Touch...”

I told him; “That is how things are. She wants to suss you out first.”

“She can do that face to face!”

“That is not how it works in 2017!”

“Then she can go to hell! I don’t want her!”

Well ...well, well.