Deteriorating Courtesy in the Midst of Advancing Technology

 

TECHNOLOGY has progressed tremendously. What used to be business calls strictly from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. has now invaded the personal parts of our lives. The speed and connectivity has allowed us to communicate at any time of the day, anywhere in the World. In the 80's, when someone made a promise on the telephone to meet somewhere at a specific time, we honour it, albeit some delays due to unexpected traffic condition. Today, you can be waiting for someone at a specified venue, date and time; but gets frustrated by a late message that says, "Oh! Sorry I forgot", or "Something came up, I cannot make it". Most of the time the reasons given are superficial, or, in other words, Bull Shit. We are very effective in communicating our ill thoughts about others on social media like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram; but ignore the messages sent to us for matters of good faith. Sometimes we find ourselves giving up waiting for responses on the phone for messages that we send to others. It does not take much effort to reply simple words like, "Thanks, will digest", or even a simple icon of a thumbsup would do. It is common courtesy to do so regardless whether you are a CEO, or an artist, or a Grab driver. Replying to a message from others is expected from everyone even when you are disinterested. Imagine going to someone face to face to say, "Hi!"; and then the person you addressed that to simply ignores you as if he or she is a wall. It sucks!, doesn't it? We take advantage of the convenience that technology has provided. We misuse the efficiency that technology has presented. We misbehave despite the modernisation of humanity. We have lost the decorum of respecting others. This deteriorating courtesy in the midst of advancing technology warrants everyone to just flush down the toilet the privilege of using Whatsapp, emails, social media or even a mere handphone.

E-Wallet Can Be Annoying

 

E-WALLET is something that may be viewed by many as technological advancement. However, for an old dude like me (Well, I'm that old, just half a century to be precise), it can be annoying. Very annoying sometimes. I brought cash in British Pounds nomination with me to the United Kingdom last year to enrol my son into a university. The entire journey, until I was back in Kuala Lumpur, did not demand me to use any of the cash. Everything from cabs to coffee only accept e-Wallets or Credit Cards. I wanted to leave the cash behind for my son, but even he refused to take it. For me, this is a WTF moment. Recently, I got stuck in a parking lot because my TNG card had really low balance. I had to park at the side to sort out the TNG Card. Bloody hell, the new TNG App puts the bloody TNG Card Icon way at the bottom hidden behind a "More" button. Then when I tried to top up my TNG Card balance, it won't work. It seemed that the bloody handphone cover has a metal layer for which the NFC could not work. Then when I lose the cover, it still won't bloody work! I had to top up the e-Wallet first, then I had to transfer from the e-Wallet into the TNG Card. Whaddahell! Of course out of all the time in the World, that particular moment my phone battery was on orange or red bar showing 2% power. And of course, I had to forget to bring my power bank too! Damn! It took me quite sometime to go look for someone in the building who could lend me his power bank. I was already profusing with sweat running everywhere to get this sorted. Of course Murphy's Law had to be applied. More screwups came along. The bloody line couldn't get me connected with Credit Card or the Debit Card. To cut a long story short, what was supposed to be a short endeavour became a long one. Some may view me as "Outdated" as far as the latest technology is concerned, but, imagine this, I was so used to the old TNG Card where it automatically deducts from my credit card everytime it reaches RM50. So, for twenty five years since 2000, I had never had to worry about manual top ups. In 2026, I find myself putting a calendar reminder every 1st of the month to check my TNG Card balance. Although the e-Wallet has an auto credit card charges but not the top ups into the TNG Card. So, it is what it is. To close the issue, I just wanted to share what happened to my late father. In 2021, when he was 85 years old, he went to a Chicken Rice Shop to eat Chicken Rice. Lo and behold, there was no menu. It was all embeded into a QR code. This poor 85 year old man has no clue where to find the QR code in his handphone, let alone understand how things work. He has never even used Maybank2U for heaven's sake. His deal was simply signing cheques and withdraw cash at the ATM. Alast, he left the place feeling frustrated not able to eat the chicken rice, and settled with just bread and yesterday's reheated fish curry. I rest my case.