Technology does not steal, lie or kill; evil people do

NAIROBI: The greatest irony of the coming of modern technology is that while it has made life less tedious, it has spawned its own downside that has left the world complaining. We are now wary of what children are browsing on the net; especially with their sexual and narcotic escapades finding their way to front-page news. Remember the kids from a Kirinyaga school caught recently doing tabia mbaya (bad manners) in a Nairobi-bound bus? And the bar-full of teens found high on weed and booze in an Eldoret bar? You must also recall the underage crowd found binge-drinking, smoking, twerking and doing stuff you only see in lurid Jamaican music videos at a Nairobi pub. Ok, welcome to Armageddon!
Lost kids aside, there are also hordes complaining that today, a task that employed 20 sinewy supermen can be done by a wimp - perhaps with owlish bifocals due to poor eyesight - staring at the screen of a computer and not appearing to do much.

On the security front, proliferation of small arms has led to insecurity; from Lokitaung in Turkana all the way to the US. My beef with the mobile telephony, especially, is that it meant our younger brothers and sisters in high school – it’s a pity, really - will never discover the magical power of letter writing. You see, in my time you sat in a lone corner at prep time and crafted a ‘missive’ that you were sure would fill the apple of your eye with so many butterflies in their stomach. You were careful to ensure every sentence was sentimentally woven. But now with SMS and Whatsapp technology, perfumed missives are all but a lost art.