Turn off all your gadgets and internet connection for one day. Have an outdoor walk. Look at the flowers and buildings around. Go to the library. Try to make new friends. Would you feel empty?
My birthday was about three weeks ago, one of my university friends sent me wishes and we promised to have a meal together as soon as university reopens.
I decided to meet up with her this weekend, before getting busier with tons of assignments, meetings and what not.
Thus, I tried to contact her and I realised I could no longer send her a text on Facebook Messenger.
There are two possibilities: She deactivated her Facebook account, or she blocked me.
The latter would not be possible, for I already knew her for three years and there was no issue between us.
It was not a big deal for me at first - I have her phone number.
Scrolled along my contact lists looking for her name, I called the phone number we used to text each other.
It couldn't reach her.
At the moment, I was thinking: Is there any other way to meet her, except social media or handphone?
When I was in primary school, those days without internet, we used to have mini address books. And I have a lot of 'em. I love to jot down my friends' house numbers and their addresses.
Even after I bought another nicer or fancier address books, I used to copy those contacts in the old book to new ones.
The advent of handphones and smartphones made us so dependent and handwriting notes are falling into disuse.
From sending handwriting letters to emails, jotting down notes into notebooks to snapping photos of the notes in our smartphones, drawing on papers to sketching on our iPads - Can we imagine one day where there is no electricity, WiFi or mobile data?
Back to contacting my friend, she sent me a Whatsapp text this evening, after I looked up for her closer friend and add her friend on Facebook.
Thanks to social media, I could get in touch with her.
The reason my friend gave was, there was no signal coverage on her phone last week when I tried to get in touch with her.
Certainly it was not her fault.
But this incident made me think and review of the current lifestyle I'm having, things that I am depending much upon.
All of a sudden, I miss those days I used to play hide-and-seek with other kids in my neighbourhood.
I miss those days where social media or online games do not exist, and my mum used to send me and my brothers for kids competition, say, the Malay traditional Congkak game competition, drawing competition, Snake-and-Ladder game competition, etc.
I miss days where we stay up late reading books we borrowed from the library, instead of sticking our eyes in front of computer monitors.
I could not deny that internet made my life easier and sometimes happier.
However, at the same time, we have given ourselves to technology and internet more than we thought we should.
Maybe some day, we should come up with an 'International no WiFi day'.
At least, once a year.
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