Tag: Telephone booth

Poor substitute

We are so connected (Google Fiber) and disconnected (from people) at the same time.

Starting with TV broadcast which reduces viewership from a theatre like in “Cinema Paradiso” down to a nuclear family in their living room, to a Youtube video download for personal  use.

With smart phones, we don’t have people knocking on the phone booth for their turn or get listened in on party line In fact, the screen has taken over what used to be folded newspaper on morning commuter train..

In Asia, where technology-sharing is common (fridge, TV, rice cooker etc…) we now see a great divide between the old and new generation, of those who are low and  high-tech. Technological divide piling on top of generation gap.

It’s a lonelier place out there, although we “friending” more. Hello World! Any one out there?

American homes are connected via all sorts of devices: from set-top to desktop.

According to a study, per capita work space has reduced drastically since devices are getting smaller yet can store more data or because people simply work from home (no longer at Yahoo).

You would think we should then have more space in the office for a couch or extra chair, so co-workers can just pop in and chat.

It turns out, all those devices are poor substitutes for the one real need: human connection. No wonder English people now turn phone booths into pubs (third places). That is a good substitute and good use of industrial waste. If only we know what to do with those first generation big-screen TVs (intended as Lazy Boy’s Cinemas).

Telcom’s waste in Vietnam

From beepers to printers, from pay phones to city-phones, Vietnam was in a hurry to leapfrog to latest in Telecommunication.

After all, there are a lot of territories to be covered, even now, with 3-G. But some attempts stick, others faltered according to an article in Labor newspaper.

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=538113

It stated that some rural households were given all three proprietary sets even when not need-justified.

Join the club! It’s not just Vietnam which tries to catch up. It’s the entire post-industrial world which try to connect 24/7. First the device, then the social network. They are discussing mutation of Web 2.0 such as Meet up when your flight is canceled, or rousing young Mexicans to join a dance to promote tourism etc….(too bad the nude photographer did not have this app available to him when he first got the idea of going from city to city to take “artful” group nude pics).

Some wise doctors even prescribed an office with treadmill and desktop combo to combat obesity, to him, an inevitable result of our information age.

I am not sure how CFO’s will buy-in to HR proposal to equip their offices with not only high-speed computers but also slow-moving treadmills (they have just considered cloud computing to get rid of the servers to save on energy bills, now this?).

It lends new meaning to “sweat equity”. Hawkins is no stranger to tapping his key board while on wheels. The guy has always been prescient (except for understanding what love is).

Wi-fi technology has given ways to a host of application (laptop and latte).

Back to our wasted phone booth and city phone (limited range, with no roaming). These apps have not been widely adopted in Vietnam.

Whoever pitched these products did not foresee the ubiquity and fast roll out of 3-G in Vietnam, hence, death on arrival e.g. S-phone. Once you got a hold of an I-phone, it’s hard to come back to beepers, pay phones and city phones. Owning an I-phone is making a statement i.e. I have arrived.

Observers new to Vietnam are marveled at its rate of  I-phone adoption i.e. how can people own an I-phone which costs nearly 2/3 of their annual income!

The same question was asked not long ago and still raises suspicion when people saw young women on Vespa and other expensive import scooters. Often, they were dismissed as being call girls until those critics themselves could afford these newly price-reduced scooters.

The next wave would be cheap auto imports and other electronics manufactured right there in Vietnam for domestic consumption (Canon and Samsung).

By then, the country will be inundated with industrial waste. And rural households will not only receive all three network termination devices, but also a host of other hand-me-down waste components such as tube TV‘s, desktop computers and even a phone booth, if they want to use is as shelter from the storm. I can’t wait to see people trying to place a 3-G mobile call inside a phone booth in the rain. At least, old technology and new technology can both be put to use in modern Vietnam, where nothing is considered waste.