Long before modern technology was introduced to the African continent in the late twentieth century, tradition always featured dominantly in our way or life or as many may call it: culture.
Do you remember all those times you would visit your friend’s house to have good conversation or engage in some leisure activity?
How about those days when you had to call that small boy to give a note to the girl you were crushing on but could not visit because of her strict father? Oh yes! That did have a lot of positive effects on character in terms of the instilling of good habits and principles.
How about how grandparents would sit and tell their grandkids folklore at night on the porches and balconies of their homes when the kids went to spend the weekends? The instances are endless so let’s just proceed to the crust of the matter. The introduction of technology comes with several benefits. Unfortunately, it seems that these benefits are also crippling the basic definition of our being in terms of our culture.
Communication
The mobile phone has made it possible for us to communicate with loved ones who are far away. We all love the late night calls in our beds to that special person and those text messages that we can send, don’t we?
However, how about when people begin to believe that the cell phone can replace actual human interaction? People are always tapping away on phones when their friends live probably four houses away. Now, prospective couples hardly spend time together physically since there is the social media; facebook, skype etc.
Entertainment
I have a friend who can play that FIFA game for six hours straight. What happened to the ludo, oware, ampe, pilolo, dam3 etc? I don’t remember the last time I saw anyone playing oware.
We have replaced it all with some sorts of foreign material. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that these foreign games are bad. I’m just worried with the way we seem to have abandoned our local entertainment forms totally for the foreign ones.
Marriage
Imagine my surprise when I heard that one of my old schoolmates had done a Skype traditional marriage because the man was not in the country. Seriously? Is that how modern technology is going to affect our cultural practices?
So, apparently the girl wore her traditional attire in Ghana and sat in front of her webcam with her family and the guy’s family while the guy, also dressed in his kente, sat in front of his computer in the UK.
Now, why were they in such a hurry that they had to do this on Skype. I wonder if they didn’t have network problems too.
I am hopelessly romantic so this particular style is out of the question for me. In fact, this does not agree with my understanding of what a traditional marriage is supposed to entail.
I can understand if this was used for an introduction ceremony but a traditional marriage which is serious is totally out of the question. The marriage is a traditional one, not a technological one. Isn’t this going to have a negative impact on our generation if people adopt this style?