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It was a rainy Saturday afternoon. I was sitting by the window thinking when the rain would stop. Suddenly, I heard this familiar sound coming from the house next door. I saw my neighbor across the street clutching his mobile phone. “He’s probably texting one of his girlfriends again,” I thought. Like all text addicts, he is dependent on his phone for communicating with his girlfriends.
Short Message Service or Text Messaging is the "in" thing now among mobile phone subscribers. Instead of talking to the other party, you can send him text messages through the mobile or cell phone. You can send anything from greetings to invitations to what have you. You can even send "text toons" (graphic text) or ”emoticons” (emotion icons) to your friends. Now, you can even send email messages or surf the internet through the text feature of your cellphone. Texting is something that can be done anytime, anywhere. It has captivated cellphone users so much that they sometimes forget to eat when they get so engrossed with their texting. It has altered people's lifestyle so much that they lose their mind when they cannot text their friends. It has become dreadful for them to see the phrase "MESSAGE SENDING FAILED or CHECK OPERATOR SERVICES" on their gadget’s screen.
It is interesting to watch these people in the middle of texting their friends. You can see how they manage to type their messages using the thumb in a matter of seconds. How they manage to squeeze their thumb in the small keypad of their mobile phones is something that amazes me to this day. The sight of these text addicts make one wonder, how will the future text addict look like fifty years from now? It's time to use our imagination a little and see if we can picture the next millennium text addict’s appearance. Here goes…
THE EYES. His eyes would probably be forever squinting. This will be brought about by constant exposure to radiation when reading text messages on the small LCD screen of his 3rd generation mobile phone. If constant exposure to radiation does not affect him, he would probably be cross-eyed due to the small size of the characters that he reads on his handset. Bloodshot peepers would also be a common sight due to lack of sleep during their texting frenzy.
THE EARS. He would probably have no ears because he doesn't have to listen anymore to the people he communicates with through text messages. With this development, jewelers will concentrate their designs on rings, bracelets, and other accessories. Also, recording companies will be put out of business because nobody will listen to them anymore.
THE MOUTH. The mouth, which has ceased to be of any functional use other than for eating and kissing with the advent of text messaging, would most likely be smaller. The failure of voice recognition technology also contributed to the degeneration of the mouth. Because of this, the Don Juans of the next generation can no longer engage in French kissing with the girls that they set their eyes on.
THE HANDS. His hands would probably be deformed by arthritis because they are always clutching the phone. Also, the thumb will be replaced by a stylus-like appendage that will be useful in keying in his text messages on the small cellphone models of his generation. The text addict could also be multi-armed so that he can do other tasks when texting.
These are just thoughts, but who knows? Remember Darwin's Law of Natural Selection? The next generation may choose to look like what I described above. It will be amusing to see someone squinting at you even if you are less than 5 inches apart. Or seeing someone looking like a spider with his many arms. It may be a common occurrence to meet cross-eyed individuals roaming the streets armed with their cell phones. Adios and happy texting everybody!
(c) Jheric A. Saracho
MAN Magazine
December 1999-January 2000 Issue
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