Just a few decades ago, if one asked any college student in the Kingdom or elsewhere in the world about his/her childhood hobbies, the answers would be more or less similar, like: Stamp collecting or reading. Times have changed so much that today’s generation might not be very much aware of a postage stamp. Of course, posting letters is no longer in vogue, as we have e-mails that don’t need any stamp or envelopes.
In the good old days, we used to write letters to friends to stay in touch. We would go the post office, buy a stamp and paste it on an envelope and would then submit it at the post office. At the other end, the friend would read the letter and would keep the stamp safe with him. These days, we don’t even need to purchase stamps to even remit funds. Everything is being done online. Postage stamp has become a thing of the past. Even officials at the post office use a machine to print a stamp-like impression on the envelope. In other words, postage stamps have almost disappeared from our lives.
Does anyone of you remember the traveler’s checks? When was the last time you saw somebody with a traveler’s check? Oh, pardon me for not realizing that many of you have no idea what a traveler’s check is all about. These checks have been around for more than 200 years. It is a preprinted, fixed amount check with the bearer’s signature on it. You buy them from the bank and are acceptable worldwide. However, with the introduction of credit cards and debit cards after 1990, these checks started to slip into oblivion. Some would argue that postage stamps and traveler’s checks had been around for a long time and with the advancement in technology, their disappearance is justified. Agreed, but what about the floppy diskette? It was introduced just in the 1970s. Within three decades, we no longer see those square-shaped objects. They are only mentioned in course books with an illustration.
Oh, I forgot, where would you find a typewriter? Sure not at a bookstore. They are found either in your father’s old trunk or may be in a museum. Honestly, when was the last time someone mentioned the word, typewriter? Of course I will not talk about rotary phone, can opener, videotapes, cassettes, music records and let us not forget the sextant. I am a former sailor and it breaks my heart to see today’s naval officers completely unaware about the sextant. By the way, the sextant is an instrument used to determine the angle between a celestial object and the horizon, which is known as the object’s altitude and it is used to determine a ship’s or a plane’s position.
There many things that have disappeared from our lives and we will never see those again. The word will see more inventions and more things will be discovered and we as humans will resort to the use of new equipment. One day, we will forget the older ones. It is said that the world is becoming more civilized but with all these new inventions, why the world does not try to make other things disappear from our lives such as hatred, prejudice, social inequality, poverty and corruption etc.
Or most importantly, why don’t we make wars and conflicts disappear from our lives. It is a shame that we spend billions in medical research labs to discover or invent medicine and drugs that save people’s lives and cure illnesses, then we spend more funds to invent destructive weapons that kill people. Can you imagine planet earth without wars?
