Chanelmama blogger Ouiam Charkani El Hassani remembers life before the ever-present mobile phone.
People like me who have lived life without phones and then with phones know how unbelievably lucky we are! We were the chosen ones who have witnessed two very, very different eras.
We’ve experienced how life can be without being constantly hooked to a little device in your hand. We’ve talked to random people in waiting rooms, on trains and buses, simply because we were bored. We were accustomed to people showing up on our doorsteps without a previous warning. We have waited for friends in random locations for hours… Well because we could never get in touch with them. You would call the landline to check, (that’s if you were lucky enough to have a pay phone next to you), and if told the person had left a while ago, all you could do is sit and wait!
How many times have we all done that? Gosh I can’t even remember… it seems like an eternity ago, and it also seems absolutely out of this world! How could you sit on a bench for an hour or so, wondering when your friend is finally going to arrive? All that wasted time, and all that wondering whether they are ever going show up or not!? It sounds crazy doesn’t it? While now, all you have to do is pick up the phone, press a button and get in touch with the person you are waiting for, and you will know exactly where they are at and how long until they arrive.
This era I am talking about isn’t 50,40 or even 30 years ago; it is maybe only 15 or 18, and I remember it vividly. All I had was my books, and my Walkman (Gosh if you are less that 30 years old, please refer to Google lol), yet I do know and remember that I was never bored. I had a deal with a bookstore close to my home, to rent and exchange books. I would go every weekend with a pile of books that had been read, and was eager to get more. I had three best friends, who lived five minutes away. I saw them every day, even though we were not at the same school together, we would always meet at someone’s house after school. We never planned our gatherings, we would just dump the school bag at home, and go on the lookout for whichever house the gathering was at. Stopping at each house, ringing the bell, getting someone to tell you: “No they are not here”, just to move again to the next house and do it all over again, until you stumble upon the right one. It was totally random, and based on who was the first to arrive. It didn’t seem like such a big deal then; this was just how things worked.
Meanwhile, and while searching for the right house, you would meet other kids on the street doing exactly the same thing, you would exchange stories, then each would go their way. You would also see the neighbours, the guy from the store nearby, the guy from the barbershop next door, someone’s uncle, your grandma maybe, and tons of other people. You would say hello to them, exchange a few words, and move on.
Life then was very vibrant, full of colours and chitchats. Everyone knew everyone, because they were not hooked to their devices 24/7. People were bored and, so, they did what they knew how to do best, they interacted with each other in ways only people my age and older, know of. Now a whole day could pass by without me meeting someone I know, randomly, at the car park, supermarket or in the neighbourhood where I live. Now no one is ever bored, because you always have a little window to the world right in your pocket.
While I am grateful that I no longer have to wait for friends for hours, unable to check whether they are coming or not, I am also a little sad for all the things we let go of the minute we agreed to bringing mobile phones into our lives. These little things are sucking the life out of us, yet no one can ever live without them. Bittersweet it is, I agree… yet somehow remembering how things were in the past, how we lived, how we interacted and how we simply were without them, might give us courage to step outside the box, and take a break. It might help bring us a step closer to how life was once, without Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, phones and with only humans for company.
