An Enugu-based 21-year old undergraduate female student, Oma
Izeorah, was recently sent packing for shunning every activity at a place where
she had come for a six-month internship, due to her ‘pinging all the way’
attitude. What she was pinging about, no one knew.
Investigations also revealed that even at home, Oma does the
same and her parents have talked their hearts out without any success of
changing her predicament. Efforts at inquiring from her how she came this way
showed that she had not only learnt from fellow students at the campus, but
because she simply want to belong. An attitude she is finding really difficult
to stop, except if the life battery of her BlackBerry ran out.
Of course, she was not only sacked from her place of
internship, but also sent home to Coal City, Enugu to continue her cross. For
the parents, it is more or less a lost battle and reversing the Pinging
syndrome will really make them glad for life.
Generations come and generations go, yet there seem to have
been persistent kind of technologies that pass through each of these
generations at a given time. While some get over it, others get hooked thereby
becoming a syndrome for them.
So, it becomes imperative to examine what role the
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools like BlackBerry PIN plays
in the lives of Nigerian youths, thus creating a generation of pingers; that’s
those who use their BlackBerry PINs to create or exchange information through
messaging. In spite of this, generations are known to differ based on the kinds
of definition associated with such a given group. And for this generation of
pingers, it could be of a given people born and living at about the same time
that BlackBerry is holding sway in the global smart phone market. The average
period, generally is considered of a generation is about 30 years, during which
children grow up and have children of their own.
In every generation there must be a technology evolution
that holds firm, thrilling men of all ages. In this century of ICT, otherwise
known as 21 century, some enthusiasts of BlackBerry have been classified as the
‘Pinging Generation’ simply because they are seen often than not Pinging away,
thereby allowing the tools to take control of them instead of the other way
round.
Further investigations by
DigitalSENSE News, shows that
those caught in the Pinging fever are youths, especially girls from middleclass
families who want to show off, mostly at campuses and gathering of peers.
Incidentally, experts say continuous use of BB Messaging
unabatedly poses a serious danger for such a class of individuals in the near
future, mostly the female folks, who may not do well in school examinations,
but are ‘champions’ at Pinging, which some refer to as gossip-on-the-go.
Additional investigations by
DigitalSENSE Business
News revealed that
most youngsters may have lost their adolescence to ‘pinging’ on smart phones.
This unprecedented attitudinal behaviour did not get this much without societal
support either directly by parents who think it’s the in-thing to buy BB for
their children or indirectly accompanied at the point of sale with promos of
all sorts from network operators and urge to belong to the happening generation.
There have been promotions that offer Blackberry pingers
some free airtimes, a brand new SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle). Thus, just imagine
winning an SUV for mere pinging contest, most of which is on BlackBerry smart
phone devices. It was not surprising, therefore that recently at the popular
Oshodi market, a young girl was knocked down while crossing the railway line;
as she listened to music on her BlackBerry and pinging at the same time,
therefore, defying all shouts for her attention on the approaching train, which
eventually killed her on the spot.
BlackBerry Personal Identification Number (PIN) is a unique
eight (8) alpha numeric digit, that could be found in Options from Status,
which works with data plan; meaning that without data plan BlackBerry users may
not be able to access their electronic mail (email) on the go, BlackBerry
browser, third party applications to name a few among other devices features.
Historically, BlackBerry is a line of smartphone devices
developed and designed by Research In Motion (RIM), a Canadian firm. The first
BlackBerry smartphone was released in 1999. BlackBerry devices are smartphones
designed to function as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), portable media
players, internet browsers, gaming devices, cameras and many others. These
phones are primarily known for their ability to send and receive electronic
mails through ‘push’ emails and instant messages, at the same time maintaining
a high level of security through on-device message encryption.
However, to ping requires the pairing of two or more
Blackberry phones by exchange of PINs by the owners of such devices, which
means acceptance to share information. This information sharing formulae is
presumably offer free by the network operators, although BB users have to
first, must have had data plans.
BlackBerry devices support a large variety of instant
messaging features, with the most popular being the proprietary BlackBerry
Messenger (BBM) service.
Though Pinging has connection to usage of BB-PIN, it is not
afar from the fact that whenever a message lands, it beeps, thus making a
single short ringing sound, or make something such as a bell produce a ringing
sound.
At the last count, several youngsters, especially ladies
have become victims of BlackBerry smartphone exponent to an extent one man made
bold to ask at a media function if this BlackBerry phones are only for the
ladies?
DigitalSENSE
News recalls that recently a female student of the University of Benin
(UNIBEN) was stripped naked for stealing a BlackBerry phone, yet it was in the
news also that an 85-year-old woman, just to name a few. So, one wonders what
the problem is with Nigerian girls and Blackberry craze.
Speaking to
DigitalSENSE Business
News on this, the Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN),
Mr. Gbenga Sesan, says, there are two angles to whether Nigerian youths use
their BlackBerry (BB) personal identification number (PIN) to just ping away,
which has effects on the economy as well as youth’s empowerment skills.
According to him, there are those who find empowerment
through the tool and those who waste time with it; adding that BB is just a
tool, the use we put it to determine if it adds value or not. He stressed that for some young people they use it to
network and connect with resources while some just chat away.
“It’s also
affecting attention spans and distracting from work. It reduces productivity
when it’s not being put to productive use during work hours,” he observed.
Ms Maureen Johnson, told
DigitalSENSE Business
News that why she
pings, is to keep busy, get information about stuffs around school, business
and other purpose, stressing that she pings about social stuffs too, adding
that the girls, ping most.
According to her, this is because most girls like gadgets,
even as she is unaware of any side effects in the future.
For another female student, Ms. Ijeoma Opara said that she
pings only when she wants to relax and probably chat with friends.
On the kind of stuffs she pings, Ijeoma said social stuffs,
maintaining that girls love gadgets, while likely side effects is the level of
disturbance one gets. “It disturbs you from paying attention to work and also
one might lose focus because too much of everything is bad.”
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Next2.us; Mobile
Product Manager StorySpaces.net; Enterprise & Mobile App Developer; Groks,
Emeka Okoye told DigitalSENSE News that BB PIN is a platform for communicating
between two or more people. For now, there is no known positive impact on the
economy or any empowerment value.
Stressing, “The BB pin is an opportunity, to build content
for the youths that will be of value to the economy or empower them.”
Where a youth spends a whole day pinging, some industry
observers noted, the chances are that the future is very blink for such a
youngster and if the number happens to be on the rise, then the nation’s
economy is in jeopardy, and chances of finding girls for ‘wife materials’ may
remain a mirage, even to find leaders of tomorrow.
This, also may heighten the already ugly performances of students
in examinations, when very often what they ping about does not necessarily add
value to their lives, it calls for a rethink.
DigitalSENSE Business
News further gathered that there has been a heightened Pinging madness to
an extent that even in churches and mosques, which may have warranted a
Nigerian musician, Lino Linx in his recent single ‘BlackBerry Madness’ to ask
“If your Bible (Holy book) and Blackberry fall into gotta (drainage channel),
which one do you pick first?” Despite the fact it has caused lots of disharmony
in several homes where many young girls now see Pinging as a way of life and
nothing can stop them. Even some can afford to boycott meals, just to Ping away
and catch up with the latest chitchat. Yet, chat, they say never finishes. We
are waiting anxiously when Lins’ question will have an answer from our youths.
“There are two angles to whether Nigerian youths use their
BlackBerry (BB) personal identification number (PIN) to just ping away, which
has effects on the economy as well as youth’s empowerment skills.”
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