In the not-so-distant past, we introduced ourselves by saying our names and where we come from. If we wanted to stay in contact with the person(s) we just met, we'd exchange business cards. In a social context, we'd ask for a phone number or an email address.
Today, instead of an email address, one of the first questions we ask is "Are you on Facebook?" Very rarely would you get a "no". So prevalent has Facebook become that it probably is one of the most popular ways to stay in touch with other people.
Instead of a business card (which still is being used today), we whip out our smartphone, open to a new contact page and hand it to our friend to tap in his full contact details. Next, use the camera function to take his photo to add to the profile. Finally, give him a missed call so that he has your contact number too, or he may hand you his smartphone to enter your details.
I had one friend send me an MMS with his full contact details, but since an MMS costs much more than a text message, I'd rather not use this option. Others choose to create a QR code instead, but you need a QR reader to read the information.
The culture of keeping in touch with another person has completely been changed by the progress of technology. We no longer need to keep boxes of business cards unless we choose to. Even then, we can simply photograph the card and an app will automatically load the information into our contact list. We rely so heavily on gadgets to keep information at our fingertips. What if, one day for a few hours, worldwide web of internet, wireless, broadband, maybe even electricity supply, crashed? What are we going to do???!!!
Backups are necessary, but we still need electricity to retrieve the info from the backup drive. Will we go back to paper? Who knows.
Maybe we will all need to have a backup on paper, rather than only in external drives. Let's start a new culture - back to pen and paper!
PS. I hope I've got you thinking about backups seriously. With global warming, we may actually need to think about the possibility of extended power outages.
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