“Beauty is beyond fashion” said Robert Doisneau, the legendary French photographer. When it comes to buying myself something to wear I tend to think functional, practical rather than trendy. If fashion wear is something I find a bit painful, how can I describe my feelings about fashion in the IT (information technology) world? People don't say computers anymore. They use IT instead. IT is grand, chic, `in', computers is petty, `out'.
Have you noticed lately that the first letter of the alphabet is becoming an endangered species? Having good IT manners these days means writing something like “I h@ve the ple@sure to invite you for the summer v@c@tion in my vill@ in @q@ba”, or “Re@d the Jord@n Times, it's an excellent newsp@per.”
When you meet someone new, before all don't give him your name or number but your web site address instead. Names and numbers are so passé, so twentieth century. Don't have a web site of your own? Stay at home!
What do you do when you're looking for music? Don't tell me you go to the store and buy a CD? That would be a crying shame. You should connect to the web, go to the Napster site, search for the song you want, spend anything between 30 and 60 minutes downloading it — when it doesn't give you a transfer error, asking you to start all over again — make do with a less-than-CD sound quality, significantly increase your phone bill, and remain stuck with the MP3 music format that limits you to listening to it on a computer or an MP3 dedicated player. Of course buying the CD would be more efficient, but who's talking about efficiency here?
What about the good old phonebook? Surely you can't still be using the traditional manual model where you enter the names and numbers on paper sheets, with your own handwriting (what an ugly word)! Use software and a computer, I mean IT, instead. So next time you need to look up a number, go to the machine, switch it on, wait about three to five minutes for Windows and all the mammoth-sized resident software to finish loading, run the electronic phonebook program, find the number you're looking for, and finally switch off the system. What a pleasure!
Don't have a cell phone with WAP? You must be living in the dark ages. The Wireless Application Protocol allows you to receive info, news, stock market data, and so forth on your portable telephone's tiny screen. WAP phones also provide excellent communication — often wireless — with PCs. Those who think negative will say that a large 17”” color monitor would be much more comfortable way to read all this information.
Others, the trendy ones, will argue that having fun with a WAP cell phone in your car would be an excellent alternative to buying withered flowers at some traffic light in Western Amman on a sunny Thursday afternoon.
As for photos, forget about shooting them with a regular camera and processing the film at the lab. The only way these days is digital. Even if this means accepting average quality photography and ending up paying more if you need prints.
I have the feeling that IT fashion somehow has gone much further than clothing fashion. Naturally the possibilities are enormous and the public is dying to follow, just for the sake of being `in', of participating in the technology revolution. Reason, efficiency, practicality, functionality have nothing on such a trend. Everybody wants to experiment and enjoy. Excuse me if I do not systematically follow. Perhaps I'm a dinosaur. ― ( Jordan Times )
By Jean-Claude Elias
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