The perks of technology-#UgBloggers7Days

There those times in life when you are having a bad day and you badly need a friend to talk to, I was having one of those days and a friend volunteered to come and help me lighten my load, the thing I didn’t picture was that the whole time he would be on the phone answering tweets and updating his status as I poured out my heart.  For once I was annoyed at the fact that we had progressed technologically. 

Let’s wage war!
 Am going to begin with the smart phones it’s the best thing that ever happened and the worst thing that happened to my social life.  The smart phone has a million advantages to it, social networking at your finger tips, emailing, and all sorts of application to ease your life. 

The most recent for me being pair it compares your Facebook or twitter profile with others and if you have large similarities it pairs you up. It’s like match making made easy! There are Google maps for almost every country and detailed with streets so it’s impossible to get lost.

But also with the coming of smart phones has come laziness not to see people because  more often than not between whatsapp and commenting on their posts and following them on twitter  am talking to them every day.
 What happened to me catching up with my friends and having a one on one chat? Take it from me sometimes the touch of a hand or the warm hug makes all the difference.

 Am not saying the smiley, the poke don’t do their jobs am just saying sometimes you need more than just words.

 Skype has helped in more ways than one, you can communicate with grandmother I Gulu, your sister in Japan, and   your uncle in Jamaica easily. You can joke, laugh and even cry but in the end talking is not enough you sit and think of that lovely olel of fish that you could have eaten together with your grandmother, or plaiting your sister’s hair, but well half loaf they say is better than none at all. So it’s better being to see and hear them than just hear their voice as it was a decade ago.

The beloved washing machine and dish washer! Every career woman/man’s best friend. It is great to have perfectly manicured hands  the whole week and not have to worry because thanks to the washing machine no more chipped nails, no more back problems and no more hauling lots of buckets of water to get a few clothes rid of soap sounds fantastic right? Finally no more washing the plates twice just to get the grease out because the dish washer will do the hard work for you .
The perks are quite interesting, you will have perfect nails alright but your water and electricity bill will sky rocket!. It’s a something for something world after all. So the next generation will most likely miss out on the pride of washing your white shirt spotless and seeing how proud your mother is. Well I guess the parent will be proud the child learnt how to operate the washing machine yeih!

If you are the parent without time on your hands because you have to work a lot your prayers have been answered. The lovely gizmos, you don’t have to feel guilty that you are not there anymore because you can compensate with the latest games, the Xbox and so on. You are at least assured that your child is safely at home playing the lights out of the game and not parading around the neighbourhood and getting him/herself in trouble. But when 10years later you realise you child has more of a relationship with his gizmos than you, you will only have yourself to blame.

Ten years ago  photos  were very  interesting your constant worry was you were either going to look to white from too much powder or fair and lovely or you looked too oiled from the Vaseline you applied worse still you those pimples  were visible whoever much you tried to hide them. Well along came Photoshop the answer to all your photo problems. Currently with Photoshop you can work on photographs from the past and make them update. Recently we worked on a photograph of 1956 to restore and I must say the results were magnificent.

 The other side of Photoshop is now we can all have a pimple free photograph, you can have your complexion changed to your liking. You can be a dark belle today and light skinned in the next instant. You know those photos were you wish some people were not there? Well thanks to Photoshop you can exclude people, things to make that picture perfect. You can also import yourself to a location you have never been to and make it believable, import yourself next to that superstar you have been dying to meet.

 So the thing with first seeing photo shopped images is that it makes it really difficult to accept to real version. Imagine you have been pining about how good looking this guy is and how incredibly smooth his skin is and the pictures you have seen are an indication he’s well travelled. So of course you are at this point thinking he is the perfect catch until you meet him and he is nothing like the pictures, turns out he has acne and he has not been beyond the boundaries of Kampala district. Yes know how disappointing it can be.

 There are various new innovations coming up every day and that is a very good thing. The thing is most technology comes with its down side. So consideration should be taken when buying something see if it adds more value. , it should it make life easier and not make you lazy. It should not be substitute for spending time with your loved ones. Time  lost can never be recovered.

Ruth Adong

Follow on twitter @ruthadong