By Mark Mutahi

As the amount of digital content gradually increases in the country, experts in the construction sector are warning of an impending disaster.

Apparently, the more the digital content the heavier gadgets such as computers, digital cameras and music players become. Consequently, the buildings in which those gadgets are housed have started sagging under the weight.

“What people don’t realise is that the more music you put in your ipod for instance, the more the weight it has,” warns Aduma Juma, the Chairman of the Architectural Society of Africa. “This puts a lot of pressure on buildings, especially those with more than 13 floors.

Of course when most of these buildings and office complexes were built, the world had not gone digital yet and so no one foresaw anything like this.”

Lift

In Nairobi, a case where a lift refused to move despite not having exceeded its capacity was recently reported. Luckily the security guard, who is an IT graduate, quickly figured out the problem. The guard asked the only college student who was listening to music on her mobile phone to give him her mobile phone and pick it on her way out. She reluctantly agreed and the lift immediately shot off.

“I was so shocked,” recalls the female college student. “I didn’t realise how much digital music can weigh. Nowadays when a lift refuses to move, I just ask the security guard to hold my phone and then I pick it later when I’m leaving the building.”     

Table crashing

In the United States, at the data centre of the popular video site YouTube, it is reported that a computer that is used to store videos broke the table on which it was placed after users added too many videos at the same time. Technology analysts joked that now it is the age of tables crashing — not Windows!

Meanwhile in Germany, it was reported that a mobile phone tore someone’s pockets when hundreds of text messages poured in on the occasion of the owner’s birthday.

“People have to realise that everything has a weight. There is nothing that weighs nothing. Except nothing of course,” warns Quincy Musyoka, a primary school teacher.

To avoid weight overload, some offices in the city of Nairobi especially those are limiting the amount of digital content employees can have.

Songs

“At my place of work, am not allowed to have more than five songs on my mobile phone, or more than three pictures on my computer,” reveals one office worker who is planning to quit his job and look for one preferably at an organisation housed on the ground floor. “Most firms on the ground floor don’t have digital content restrictions. It is those on upper floors.”

But trust Kenyans to take advantage of every situation. Some people are already figuring out a way of exploiting this fact to deter mobile phone thieves.

“I will just store as much music, pictures and videos in my mobile phone as possible so that it becomes too heavy to snatch and run off with,” discloses a city resident.