By Badrolhisham Bidin

Imagine life without a smartphone. Or a tablet. Now. Or the apps which are bundled together with all these gadgets. Like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or even Facebook.

The banking apps, or the e-wallets, all tucked in your smartphone. Even road tax and driving licence are kept in an application. What else do you have stashed in your phone? It used to be a thick wallet, filled with wads of cash or your credit cards.

Go to any restaurant, or even small roadside stalls, they would have a barcode for you to scan, to pay for your bills. Ready your phone, scan and pay. Just don’ t forget to top-up your e-wallets.

You are constantly connected with your loved ones. No need to call, just message them via Whatsapp, or the other social media, tell them where you are, or keep tabs of their whereabouts.

Even cars are equipped with built-in handsfree gadgets, you can talk to your loved ones, get connected to your office at all times without worrying about other motorists on the road. They are probably doing what you are doing.

Nowadays, you hear more deaths among family and friends. Not because there are more than before, but because deaths are announced on social media. Pre-social media, deaths of close relatives were announced via Telegram. Not the app, but a service provided by the post office.

A brief message, so and so is dead. It was quite expensive as postmen need to deliver the message fast. Sometimes you got that dreaded message at night. That service is now dead.

Now, everything is at your fingertips.

How was it in the 70s? When there was no smartphone available. But those in that era survived. Ask them now if they remember “the dark days” and chances are they have forgotten.

It is not due to age factor but these “veterans” are also hooked on social media, so much so the young have shied away from certain apps as their parents, grandparents are all there.

The “oldies” would wish everyone Good Morning and soon the Whatsapp group is filled with similar wishes. Some would copy and paste their friends’ until there is no available space because they do not know how to delete old messages.

Would like to throw this question to those already working in the 70s. How did your boss get to you if there was something urgent to solve? I bet it was more peaceful then. Not all households had a home phone then. The early 80s was when the mobile phone was only on tv shows. Bet some of you would laugh then, thinking it was impossible to talk to someone 100 miles away clearly without being connected through wires.

Once when a singer was seen using a wireless microphone on television, it caused a havoc. Many wrote to the newspapers, called the TV station telling them it was obvious that the singer was lip-syncing since the microphone was not wired.

The TV station had to explain that it was a wireless microphone, something new then.

Now you don’t even see the microphone, it’s hidden beneath the collar. Then, the people had to wait till tomorrow to know the extent of catastrophes, or high-profile murders, apart from watching the 8pm news.

Now, you know about it almost immediately after it happened. All you need is the Internet. When MH370 went missing in March 2014, a delay of even one minute would cost a news portal to lose thousands of readers.

Not when your rival had the news a minute earlier. Some servers crashed due to influx of readers wanting to know more – live telecast on television was just not enough.

Even squabbles among family members, husband and wife, friends are viralled.  Divorce among celebrities fill the portals daily, and that would be the most read stories of the day. Read through the comments on FB or Twitter, there are bound to be someone advising the others not to get too excited. Karma is a bxxch, they would say.

Then, seemingly innocent remarks would escalate into a big “fight” among rivals who had nothing to do with the couple.

Trying driving to an unfamiliar place without Waze and chances are you will end up in some twilight zone!  How did they do it in the 70s, 80s or even the early 90s? Asraf Dahari, an award-winning photographer said all he needed to do was to stop and ask for direction.

Sometimes you need to stop a few times but you will get to your destination and make friends in between.

That reminds me of a personal experience. As a crime reporter you would need to check the mortuary for stories if you were on the graveyard shift. The KLH mortuary was our “must” pitstop then.

One night however, I seemed to have lost my way to the mortuary. I parked my car within the hospital compound and started looking for the building. It was dark and even the streetlights did not help.

As I was walking I saw someone in white uniform and stopped him to ask for directions. He did not say anything but turned around to point to a direction. I turned around to thank him but he was gone. The direction he gave was correct. Go figure.

So, if you think life is difficult, think of those living in the 70s or 80s. They survived without all the gadgets. Enjoy life!

This writer is so excited when he found a public phone booth that works fine in Ampang recently