Do leave home without it - the handphone, that is

I HAVE rabbited on about modern communications in many articles. The first one was when SIA announced e-mail facilities on their aircraft. My concern then, and now, is that humans ought to be able to escape from communication with others.

My first big problem was prior to e-mail or handphones. It was 1981 and we had escaped from Singapore for the beach just north of Kuantan. We were staying at the Titik Inn, a few shacks behind the beach with a communal barbeque facility. Take your own sleeping bag, frozen beer and steaks.

It was magical, because we saw horseshoe crabs mating - the shallows were awash with them - and it was also my introduction to swimming in a fluorescent sea.

It was magical until the second day, when we were hailed by one of the owners. I must call the office right away! Very urgent!

Getting to a phone, trying to get through to Singapore and trying to disturb the senior partner took ages, as I fretted about what sin I had committed. The upshot was a routine query on a set of accounts that did not need signing for several days. What a way to spoil a holiday.

Modern communications systems and their devices are awe-inspiring and a boon to many facets of life. I have no problem with people using them, whether to talk or text, if they do it courteously. Their communications are private to them and should not disturb anybody else.

Unfortunately, this does not always happen. We get annoyed by people who talk loudly in public places - especially in restaurants and on public transport. As a trainer, my personal phobia is having someone SMS-ing under the desktop - seeing a face looking at you, but its eyes are glazed.

Two memories stick with me - the first being unable to walk properly in Hong Kong because pedestrians were not looking where they were going, only at a screen. The second (and to me very funny) was my first sight of hands' free. I saw a businessman marching down Boat Quay talking in a loud voice into his tie - hilarious at the time.

Cut to today. Most of us use all sorts of communication devices, which can be activated wirelessly, anywhere and at any time. If they are solely under our control, then this can be good for us. But when there is somebody else involved in the communication, we have no control and life can get frantic.

In the old days, when there was just the landline, the telex and the fax, disturbance was infrequent. However, being woken up at 2am by a client in the US, who just wanted to chat about their accounts and had no idea how big the world is, was slightly annoying.

Today, we receive communications from others 24/7 - some of immediate interest and some as mundane as a picture of a lunch being eaten somewhere. Modern life suggests that we should respond instantly and we get hooked on using the handphone in bed, just in case the message is important.

I am concerned that modern Man is losing control over life as well as disturbing those around them who have not yet lost control and actually switch things off.

In this vein, I was heartened to see that France is introducing a law that allows workers to elect to answer business e-mail outside office hours or not. No sanction will be allowed. It is not often that we praise the French for anything, but this seems a fair law.

And now, the biggest area of growth in crime is cybercrime. The more connected we become via machines, the easier it is for others to hack into our lives and do nasty things to us.

The United States has accused Russia of cybercrime over the election of Donald Trump, releasing so-called private Democrat correspondence. People's bank accounts are being raided because of online shopping and banking. I lost the contents of my hard disk last summer to a virus, despite security software (sorry to anyone I haven't contacted since - your addresses were wiped). And now you can buy a kettle that you can switch on remotely (why would you ever want to do that?). It is connected to your handphone via an app, and all other systems are connected on WiFi, so hackers can gain access to all sorts of things just because you want a cup of tea.

It is high time we stepped back and asked ourselves - do we need to look at that screen now? Let's go for dinner, handphone-free. And do not tell the boss where you are.