Scribem

Technological progression

There’s an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone.Bjarne Stroustrup

I attended a training course over at North Sydney over the past week and hence re-experienced catching peak-hour trains packed with commuters going to work/uni/whatever. Now, it’s been a while since the last time I caught a train bright and early in the morning, having my personal space compromised by passengers who evidently have too much blood in their caffeine-stream and thus still in a semi-zombie state. In fact, it must be back in my early uni years (since by the time one reaches late uni years, one doesn’t bother getting to uni before lunch). In these past 5-6 years, I’ve noticed something that’s significantly different – the evolution of gadgets.

See, back then, it wouldn’t be too uncommon to see all these suits yacking away at their larger-than-tic-tac-box-sized mobile phones. Some people would be banging away at their laptops trying to get their PowerPoint presentation done before they get to work. Others would be mucking around with their PDA. That’s basically about the state of gadgetry on peak-hour trains back then.

Not anymore.

This past week, my morning routine would be something like this:

1. Wake up, chow some breakkie, make myself somewhat presentable, leave house.
2. Get to Epping station, await train (which I must admit seem to be more on-time than before).
3. Either:
   • find a seat and then promptly fall asleep until Central, or
   • stand until someone leaves and frees up a seat, in which case I take their spot and promptly fall asleep until Central.
4. Get off at Central, change platforms, jump on a train that goes to North Sydney.
5. Get off at North Sydney and explore the area until the training course starts.

Now, all of the above is pretty boring… except for what happens between 4 and 5. Since I’m crammed into a train and I’m only travelling a few stops, there’s no point trying to find a seat. Instead, I stand near the carriage doors along with my fellow sardines. It is then that I noticed that things have changed… a lot.

Instead of people yacking away on their mobiles, I see all these people with their Blackberry’s pulled out and checking their email and sending SMSes. It seems like people prefer sending SMS than talking now. I look around me and I would see two people doing some text stuff on their Blackberry’s, some younger-aged people would be busy thumbing away an SMS, some considerate person would provide commuters with musical entertainment via their generously-volumed iPod, while some other guy standing not too far distant would be oblivious to all this because he’s playing with his PSP/DS and couldn’t care less.

I feel so pre-historic now…