By Ndaba Nhuku| I miss the old days when we really spoke to girls and told them how beautiful they are
I really miss the Friday rituals of hunting for movies at the Blockbuster that was in my hood. By the time it shut doors and changed into a Charity organisation office some 3 years ago, l can’t remember where my kid had placed my treasured DVD player.
The speed at which technology is fast changing our lives, some people will soon be leaving their houses for their last journey on earth- burial. Every thing is now at the tip of ones fingers as they sit in their couch. Doctors and nurses treating you, and even talking to you via the phone in the comfort of your home. Medication ordered and delivered at home. The keyboard buttons now rule our lives. Even emakhaya wild animals and our mombes have not been spared. They are gradually having electronic tags to trade their whereabouts. Abafana benkoml will one day be a historic footnote. Isitshwala/ sadza being cooked by remote controlled machines in restaurants. The kitchen has long been taken over. My fridge plays has the whole screen bigger than my tablet, you can google, play music, watch movies, chat, Facebook, order your grocery, let it’s camera show you what’s inside whilst at work, you can phone from the fridge. The manual driven car is even fast disappearing in Zimbabwe at a speed UK can not match! Everything in the car is now controlled on the dashboard screen. Nomore winding down the window when kids let out that stinky smell! Even if you forget where you parked your car at some big busy car park, some button on your phone will point out for you.
Even robbing has become digital. It is only in poor South Africa and some other poor countries where bank and shop robbery is done via the barrel of a gun! These days it’s smartly done online. Whether you want to contact details bank or Ndaba Nhuku, it’s all painlessly done by remote and no life is lost.
I now for long old world that kept diabetes and obesity at a distance because we were physically doing things and chasing after real girls not these ones our kids now order online and deliver themselves on the couch.
Who remembers writing a letter proposing to a beautiful flame? These days you don’t even write “l love you!” Its sounds awful spending seconds let alone minutes writing words of affection!! You just send some crazy picture meant to tell that flame on Facebook you adore her or him, pronto she sends one back. All done!! You miss your folks, you go to Whatsapp, exchange a few gossips and photos, all done. Nomore going to the shops to buy those phone cards we once treasured as out link to relatives and friends. Has God been spared of the agony of technology! He has been hit the hardest! The Bible is online, the pastor’s are online daily screaming on social media. Even the tithes is now effectively collected in megabucks online. Marriages and Weddings conducted online. Funeral prayers delivered online.
When l pass by my tiny local library every day l imagine what is inside. Shelves of books? Journals? It’s all online! And most towns have sold all their library buildings because they became useless in this age of the Remote control.
Has the bedroom escaped technology? No ways! All these sex toys and dolls are almost human being in every aspect. The dolls can actually walk andhold a sweet romantic conversation! Women can carry their buddies in their expensive Gucci and Versace handbags! Just like week l was reading a medical journal stating that possibly in less than 20 or so years time, dying will be optional!! Religion and God will ha e been confined to history once human being start choosing when to die after all the fornication with sex toys and corruption and self destruct by pressing some electronic buttons. How l miss the once innocent but manual life that kept our blood and heart racing for survival.
Did l say the keyboard is now the king in our lives? Maybe! Your own sweet voice is the only thing that will remain important. My phone, TV and security systems in my house recognise only my voice to start operating. Whatever part of world l am in, l can see inside my house, I can open the door for the delivery man. And l can tell the burglar trying pry open my house’s door that the police are on their way after l have sent the local police station his photos and videos showing him attempting to make me find my house empty.
I am missing my Blockbuster shop and the old world it represented!! The new world is scary albeit it’s ever exciting new inventions.