Thanks to someone’s brilliant invention, we are refuelling bad social habits slowly but surely. When these power banks first came on the scene, they were a relief to many of the Android smartphone owners like myself because battery life has never been our biggest bragging point. In fact, any smartphone for that matter has never been smart enough to have a long-lasting battery. The phone will not have the power to run any application but has this supreme energy to keep reminding you every after three minutes that your battery is low and you should recharge. Smartphones are not that smart I tell you. So anyway, power banks came as saviours, so we thought.
Have you ever sat in church next to a lady and when you thought she was pulling out a Bible from her handbag, she pulls out something the size of a car battery? You will stare in shock as you think she is going to plug it into a Galaxy Tab or something close in size. Nothing. She will smartly pull out a ka Galaxy Young or one of those mini phones and kaboom, she is back in business. You can clearly read the discomfort on her face. It is huge and misplaced. Helpful? Yes, but not comfortable. At least not for her. You look at a woman carrying a big bag these days thinking that only normal things could be there, only to find something almost as big as a generator. Apparently the smaller ones do not offer enough power storage capacity, so you can now get the picture of where everything is headed.
Just when you thought that people were getting more anti-social when they meet because of smartphones, someone decides to introduce the power bank. People had stopped conversation because of smartphones. Friends will hang out together but spend most of the time staring at phones and with power banks on the loose, they will be spending a lot of time away from conversation. Everyone is more concerned about keeping their phone alive than keeping their friendships alive. Everywhere you go, it is always a phone and some huge ‘thing’ on the table. Absolutely no space for a plate of food or anything for that matter.
We have refuelled bad habits. People no longer charge phones at home. You can do it anywhere from your car to your toilet. Things are that easy now. Obviously, some people will not see any fault in this but it is just sad. Dude will shamelessly carry the thing to the toilet and grab some charge. You will see a chap pacing from one corner of a bar to another looking for a power bank. Power banks have unveiled phone addicts (I swear I am no phone addict). While they have been very useful, especially in villages when power is rare, they have been an evil in a way.
