The marvel of modern technology – we are not connected, yet we are. Let me explain.
Don’t leave home without it. No, not American Express; your smartphone.
Today, most of us use smartphones . According to Priori Data, there are 4.88 billion smartphone users (1). I repeat, smartphone users… not mobile phone users. 4.88billion is over 1/2 the world population of 8 billion.
These bits and pieces of technology has made us reliant…ok ok… that’s putting it mildly… has made us over-reliant on this technology. Nowadays, meeting face-to-face is becoming times of scarcity.
While we are connected with almost everybody on earth, the distance cannot be further from the truth when we talk about physical connection.
All said and done, the smartphone is definitely a must have. Almost every facet of your life has to function through your smartphone. To delve what it can and cannot do (got meh? [2]) will require another essay, chapters, books to be written.
It is because of this technological marvel – the smartphone, and the multiple social media applications that run on these devices that my classmate Mohan Singh, and I; and our other classmates and schoolmates, have re-connected with one and other, and have remained connected after all these years. Many of our classmates reside in other parts of the world – and we are connected.
Mohan and our La Salle@75 Whatsapp (one of the most popular, if not the most popular social media “connection” applications [apps for short] in Malaysia) group, have been keeping abreast with my posts on leatherpotato.com. At this juncture, I like to note that an evergreen teacher of ours, Mr. Michael Xavier; is in our La Salle@75 Whatsapp group. He is an active participant, with his usual “Good morning, take care guys” daily greetings. We are blessed to have him with us in the group.
One day, about a year ago; Mohan calls (Whatsapp phone, what else? 😁) me and said, “Let’s meet for breakfast”. At breakfast, he said that I should publish the book that I talked about writing… that I had my manuscript which I just needed to put together.
From there, I connected with one of his friends…and the rest as they say is….elementary. 😁
We met at Star Bhavan for breakfast today. Mohan acquired his copy of the just published SPARKS OF JOY – SEIZE THE MOMENT.
Star Bhavan was more than its usual hive of activity. There was a group of elderly ladies who sauntered in for breakfast and a spritely chat after what looked like an exercise outing for them. They talked quite loud, excitedly. We young ones, that is Mohan and I; had a bit of a time trying to concentrate on our own conversation.
In our discussion, Mohan shared ideas on further promoting the book. We also talked about my next book. Hint: It has something to with a bicycle. 😉😊
NOTES:
1. As of 2024, there are approximately 4.88 billion smartphone users worldwide, accounting for about 60.42% of the global population. The number of smartphones in use globally is around 7.21 billion. China leads global smartphone ownership with 974.6 million users.1 Jan 2025 https://prioridata.com/data/smartphone-stats/
2. Local Chinese way of expressing disbelief.