Living in an age of digital technology, it is interesting to see those who still try to hold on to what seems to be ‘old’ concepts. By saying that, I am talking about driving and texting. There are all these awareness campaigns and advertisements advising us not to text while driving, yet we have applications like Snapchat that records our speed if we record a video while driving. Where is the sense in that? What is even more funny is that the very same application recently introduced a new filter that says ‘Don’t snap and drive’, however, they forgot to remove the speed recording. So while leaving your app to record our speed as one of the filters, you now add another one that states that we shouldn’t snap while driving? While not playing with your phone while driving is common sense to a lot of us, it doesn’t seem to apply to everyone, which makes me question the responsibility of app developers. Shouldn’t we work for the betterment of our society rather than the opposite? Why even allow such a filter in the first place? Now, a lot of you might say that it wasn’t added for the sake of people recording their speed while driving, but the fact that it still can is reason enough not to introduce it in the first place.
It is about time that we wake up from our bubble and start making serious decisions because it is not all fun and games at all times. If it is there, people will use it – as simple as that. If our definition of fun has come down to recording our speed on an app, we probably need to look for a new hobby.
— The reader is a Jordanian student based in Abu Dhabi
