Hoverboards are for lazy spoilt kids

Undoubtedly, technology has shaped nearly every aspect of the way we live today. It governs the way we communicate with one another, the way we travel from one location to another, to the way we obtain and share information. We are constantly relying on technology to enable our most basic daily activities. I am not a technophobe by any stretch of the imagination, but I have had enough of the latest tech craze sweeping Nairobi.

If you hang out at malls a lot, you have probably seen teens and pre-pubescent boys and girls rolling around on two-wheeled, battery-powered platforms with strategically placed LED glow lighting. This is the hottest tech gadget in town, the hoverboard. The futuristic, two-wheeled motorised vehicle is pretty cool, actually.

Celebrities like Wiz Khalifa, Justin Beiber and Kylie Jenner have endorsed it. The millennials are of the opinion that riding one of these contraptions puts them in the same status as these celebrities but there is something that Wiz, Justin and Kylie have that make their owning a hoverboard even cooler; huge private estates to ride them on!

Nowadays, I can't even walk five steps inside a mall without having to side step around some dimwitted kid spinning in circles on one. I hate that I have to move aside with my cart to create space so that some entitled brat can get around the supermarket on his hoverboard which would be unnecessary had the said brat decided to use his own goddamned legs when shopping. I can't even sit in a restaurant without some kid hurtling down on a hoverboard to go use the washrooms! Like seriously? You can't even walk a few steps inside a restaurant to use the washrooms?

There is something about a hoverboard that instantly makes a person unbelievably narcissistic, entitled and lazy.

I am all for movement with minimal effort and if hoverboards are the way to go, then so be it. However, let us be considerate of the people who prefer the age-old form of travel, walking. Would it kill you to get off that lazy contraption when in a crowded area? You think you are being cool when you are hurtling down without abandon amidst people, but you are actually just being a douche.

It is unbelievably annoying to see these machines taking up space on walkways or malls and busy places. They shouldn't be used in places where people walk, same way you don't see people riding their bikes or scooters in the mall or walkways.

As you enjoy exerting as little effort as possible to travel around, be mindful of others.

@roxannekenya