Years ago, I was seated at an Airport lounge. I arrived an hour before flight time, so I minded my business on my phone.

About thirty-minutes later, the older man seated next to me literally shoved his Newspaper at me. “You have been pressing your phone since I arrived. Take this, read through it and understand what is happening in your country and the world. This will help you more than the phone you are pressing!”, He said.

He and the man seated next to him were about to mouth off about how unserious this generation was but I was clearly irritated by his behaviour. I don’t know you from anywhere and you shove your paper in my face with a commanding tone.

I needed to bring him up to speed, so I showed him my phone, I was reading newspapers online. I had read almost all my favourite papers online before his unprovoked tantrum. While he read just one Newspaper, I had read through almost all the national dailies.

In December 2019, my little sister was on holiday at my place. Whenever she was less busy, she jumped on her phone. She literally was on her phone all day. Even though she did her chores, I was concerned about how she spent her free time.

How could an undergraduate in her final year be on her phone instead of reading her books? I wanted to talk, but was looking for a more subtle way to pass the message. So I asked her what she was doing on her phone? She told me she was reading. I asked her to show me and she did. She was actually reading a book. She downloads books online. So, all the while I was worried, she was reading different books of her choice. Meanwhile, I can’t even remember the last time I read a book myself.

Recently, a friend contracted some girls to serve at an event, one of the girls would jump on her phone when she was less busy. She was distracted and busy on her phone you would have to tap or shout her name to get her attention.

Her boss was pissed and he started to curse her out. She tried to explain but he shut her up. He threatened to cut short her pay if she was caught on her phone again. Yet, once she was less busy, she hid to use her phone.

The boss caught her again and took her phone away, told her if she had nothing doing, she should just sit like her colleagues. She was not happy, but there was nothing she could do. She needed that money; that was the reason she took the job.

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When the boss got to his office, out of curiosity he decided to even check what exactly could be distracting the young lady that she had to be called repeatedly before she jolted back to reality. She was reading her notes from school. She had pdf copies of her schoolwork on her phone for easy access.

Every little opportunity she got, instead of just lounging or chatting away with others, she would read her books. Her boss returned her phone almost immediately and told her to try as much as possible to also concentrate on the job he was paying her for.

Overtime, I have come to the realisation that most people tend to judge others from their own little understanding. We always think other people are unserious because they are doing things differently. We want them to do things like we do or even better than us, but the truth is we all have different ways of doing things.

Most people would readily see or think the person operating a laptop the entire day is serious minded, while the person pressing a phone is unserious. This type of reasoning is flawed. It is flawed because people are ruling the world today just by typing on their smart phones. Many phones do exactly what laptops do and even more. Smart Phones are mini offices.

I have written close to two hundred articles, published in a national newspaper and all were written and delivered from my phone. My phone is my own office, school, storage device, bank, time, alarm, notebook, library, bible, entertainment, just name them!

Unfortunately, if the older generation does not see you with pen, paper or book, you are tagged unserious. This is not to say there are no people who just press phones all day even at the expense of their source of livelihood. They are on their phones chatting, trolling or watching videos and laughing the entire day. It is irritating to say the least whenever I come across such people.

Technology is the order of the day. It is here to stay! This is a generation of knowledge seekers. A generation that questions norms. A generation doing things differently. We want to ask questions and smart phones answer almost all of these questions.

Don’t always jump into conclusion that people are unserious because they are always on their phones or doing things differently. Many people in this generation are pushing the envelope, breaking boundaries with their brains, finger tips and smart phones.