Independence month is here again and since 1957 we have been commemorating the sacrifices of those who sacrificed to free Malaysia from British colonialism every August 31. The Merdeka Day celebration is usually in the form of a parade of people, machinery and weapons at Dataran Mereka. This raises the question of what independence has been achieved but not celebrated by all of us? Here are five Tech Independences that aren't celebrated and why we think they should be.
Freedom From Cash
Credit cards in their current form were invented in 1950 with the Diner's Club offering. Before that cards that enable cashless payments already existed at the end of the 19th century. The use of credit cards still requires a person to have a good banking record. While debit cards require physical machines that small merchants cannot offer.
The introduction of DuitNow in Malaysia since 2018 solves the above issues. Business owners only need to display a QR code scanned using a smartphone. In the initial stage awareness about DuitNow was low. But Covid-19 changed everything as millions of Malaysians were successfully Pavlov-kan to scan QR codes every day. This real independence from having to carry cash makes daily affairs much easier. No more issues of forgetting to take out money before going to the night market. Now the sister selling apam balik in the market has accepted DuitNow payments as long as there is a cellular network on the phone.
Freedom From The Limits Of Physical Media
As a young teenager in the late 1990s, I was proud of my collection of hundreds of CDs and DVDs at home. The songs on the CD are then "ripped" and stored in the PC in MP3 format. Every time before traveling home for a semester break from university, the song compilation needs to be "burned" to CDR first. If a mistake is made the CD won't play and I have to drive with the CD already in the car which may have been damaged due to the heat or put up with random songs on the radio.
This lack of physical media no longer has to be experienced by Generation Z. They grew up in the world of iTunes, Spotify and Netflix. A catalog of hundreds of millions of songs, TV series and movies can be streamed directly to the vehicle's stereo system. No more worrying about CDs stored in the car being damaged due to hot weather. No need to worry about the song skipping when you hit a pothole on the road. Generation Z and beyond are already independent from the limitations of this physical media.
Freedom From Ignorance
We never celebrate independence from "not knowing". Three decades ago if you wanted an answer to a question, you had to open an encyclopedia and read it. This process is difficult because encyclopedias are very expensive (how many readers grow up with them at home?) and if you go to the library they cannot be borrowed. So admitting "I don't know" is something that is not shameful.
In 2023 we will be free from this "I don't know" problem. A smart device in the hand can provide answers to all worldly questions in just a few minutes. With ChatGPT, more complete answers with source links can also be provided to increase confidence in their validity. To remain ignoramus is a personal choice not because of barriers to access to knowledge. So this freedom from not knowing should be celebrated.
Independent From Physical Storage
In the early days of mobile phones it was customary to delete the SMS inbox before Hari Raya, New Year and any major celebration. This is in preparation for receiving a rain of SMS from relatives and friends. There is also a limit of 255 phone numbers that can be stored in the SIM card. When was the last time you deleted SMS storage? When was the last time you thought about the limit of phone numbers that can be stored?
I have no memory of doing these two things for the past 14 years. In addition, we are also free from device storage size limits since subscribing to cloud storage. All that needs to be taken care of now is the cloud storage limit and the monthly subscription price.
Freedom From Surprise No
The HTC HD7 was the first smartphone I reviewed early in my career as a writer. In the early days of 3G I didn't know how to limit data usage. As a result the phone bill increased to over RM300 per month while reviewing this device. RM300 is not such a large amount when compared to various cases of users being charged thousands of ringgit by telecommunication companies after mistakenly activating data roaming while on holiday in Europe.
The issue of bill shocks has become such a popular topic that some telco companies use the term "no more bill shocks" to advertise their latest data plans. Now we can see how much data has been used in real time. Notifications are provided if high usage is detected. By paying under RM100, you can now use unlimited 5G data for a month if roaming is activated on the phone. Freedom from bill shocks is another thing that seems to be forgotten.
Happy Merdeka Day to all Malaysians. Albert Einstein once said "All that is great and inspiring is created by individuals who can work in freedom." So use technology to free yourself from the shackles that prevent us from reaching our true potential.