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In the end...: Of hailers and refuseniks
TheY SAY the internet has become a way of life. Conventional terms like “bookworms” and “couch potatoes” have gradually given way to more trendy words like “techies”, “geeks” and “cyberpunks”. IT has come a long way from its initial use as a means of information dissemination and of research.
Today, savvy entrepreneurs, executives, students, and even non-contributing members of the society do everything they consider worthwhile with help from the internet which is becoming ubiquitous. Whether it is sending e-mails or pictures, learning about new places and climes, online shopping or online marriages, for every problem there’s the internet.
In terms of growth and development, it is good to see Pakistan in a flux. On the global front, the last decade or so has witnessed a technological boom, which has not only revolutionized our way of life and improved our standards of living but also given birth to new needs and desires.
With the passage of time, these new “necessities” no longer concern just the elite, but have permeated down to even the rural areas of developing countries. Today, we cannot imagine a day without all the amenities, electronic gadgets and appliances which just a few years ago were considered luxuries.
The practice of sleeping outdoors at night has given way to sleeping inside, with at least one fan or air conditioner switched on. Many cannot imagine a breakfast without a toaster, microwave oven or coffee maker. For bathing, we need either jacuzzis or saunas, besides an electrical masseur.
The new generation are adept at playing video and computer games but look lost if you mention games like pakdam pakdai and kidi kata. Mind you, this is not just because of the age difference.
This is more because it has become trendy to be viewed as computer savvy. In fact, people do not mind if they are labelled as “nerds” or “newbies”.
But this is just one side of the picture. There are many people amongst us who do not respond to technological advancements whole-heartedly and are, in fact, sceptical towards the whole idea of change. Call it fear, doubt or just plain inflexibility, but such situations do exist.
While most people, especially in the developing countries, do not have the means to use hi-tech products, there are some who despite having access to digital “amenities” do not want to use them. This inflexibility towards accepting change has given rise to new concerns.
Analysts fear that the ‘digital divide’, which is growing fast, is sure to rip apart the best of societies if nothing worthwhile is done to counter this emerging trait in people.
A recent survey conducted in the UK revealed that one out of every three persons still does not want to be associated with technology. He or she is in fact proud to be a ‘refusenik’.
Half of the British homes do without a PC and a third of the population has no access to the internet. When further research was carried out to find out why refuseniks did not respond positively to the internet, various facts were revealed.
Between 30 and 40 per cent of the people either lacked confidence in their own skills or did not have an internet connection (due to its relatively high cost or because they simply did not want one). Still others were concerned about security issues and believed that the internet had no lasting benefits.
If one of the most developed countries in Europe faces such a situation, where do we in the developing countries stand? The news that we too have hordes of people who can be called ‘refuseniks’ will not come as a surprise because most of us are well aware of our low literacy rate, which becomes a low-priority issue in poor families often having too many mouths to feed.
In the present scenario, our feudal lords and panchayats lean towards senseless “laws” and “regulations”. Add to that the sad realization that any initiative to obliterate poverty, lack of literacy and unemployment by the government always moves at a snail’s pace.
Any new idea or potential breakthrough seems to get lost somewhere in our lengthy procedures and messed up policies which in turn demotivates the people.
So what are digital refuseniks afraid of? Is their attitude attributable to some innate fear of technology or perhaps to some wrong notions that machines are more powerful than the human mind? Has man let machines take over completely?
There can be no better portrayal of human thought than our very own actions and behaviour. The scenario then looks something like this: with power breakdowns all the more frequent during summers, we see jittery, irritated and tiresome people around us.
Not long ago, the whole of the country was “stopped in its tracks” when our only undersea cable which connected our system to the outside world developed a fault. This not only hampered connectivity to the internet but also affected trade and business. Call centres and even airlines incurred heavy losses in the process. This may have made more people wary of technology.
At the same time, the internet’s credibility is at stake. Remember the cases of fraud that are rampant on the World Wide Web? But then everything under the sun has a positive angle and a negative side to it.
It is important for people to know of the difference between what is right and what is not. What is required, then, is to explain to the masses why technology is good for them and to promote the many advantages of this new way of life.
The writer is a freelance contributor
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