Monday, July 22, 2013

Keeping up with technology.

So recently my father has just bought a smart TV. I’m not sure what the salesman told him when he was out shopping for it but now I’m getting the impression that said salesman probably said something along the lines of “it can read your mind and change the channels without you needing to lift a finger and download the entire internet for you to browse whenever and however you like.”

Many people have mentioned that technology isn’t like a TV drama series where you can record and watch whenever you like; fail to keep pace and you’re left trailing behind forever. It’s thanks to people who do not move with the times like my old man that stand-up comedians have things to joke about. That said, not every old person is stuck in the past. There are old people who are completely in touch with the times without forgetting their age. Well, not forgetting their age is really beside the point anyway.

Sometimes you have people who are so badly behind technological progress they tend to fly years ahead instead. Most of the time these are overly egotistical people who are afraid of being wrong. Such as my father. The kind of people who think “ooh I have a smart TV or a smartphone or whatever so I will now want to surf the net without using my laptop.” Yes, because typing in the address of a webpage on your smart TV browser using the remote control’s arrow buttons to select individual letters and numbers and then inputting them one by one is so much more convenient that typing it with a keyboard.

Maybe this is just me having a sluggish smartphone, but whenever I have my laptop easily accessible, I would chose to surf the net with it rather than using my smartphone. I would think that even people with tablets or the latest flagship smartphone models would still prefer a laptop or a netbook, even, over other mobile devices for the sheer convenience of a keyboard with physical keys that don’t compete for space with whatever your screen is displaying.

And now thanks to that, I’m feeling that the full potential of the smart TV is wasted on merely watching TV or some pirated low-res DVD movie. Maybe I should convince my father to get a PS3 as well since, let’s face it, he has no chance of using it to its full potential without me and it’s unfair that only he gets to use it to its full potential in his way.

And on that bombshell’ adieu to y’all.