This Thing In Your Hand
Look at the phone in your hand. For your grandmother in Multan, this rectangle of glass and metal was magic when she first saw it. For you, it is the most ordinary object in the house, more familiar than a spoon. Both o…
There is more than one way to understand this. If you have only been taught one, you have been taught less than you deserve.
There is more than one way to understand this. If you have only been taught one, you have been taught less than you deserve.
Look at the phone in your hand. For your grandmother in Multan, this rectangle of glass and metal was magic when she first saw it. For you, it is the most ordinary object in the house, more familiar than a spoon. Both of you are right. The phone is a small machine that does many jobs at once. It is a camera, a torch, a calculator, a radio, a notebook, a postman, and a window onto the whole world. Before we use it well, we should know its parts the way a tailor knows the parts of a sewing machine.
The screen is the front of the phone. It is the face. Almost everything happens here. You touch it with one finger and the picture changes. Touch lightly, the way you touch your younger brother's cheek when he is sleeping. The screen does not need to be pressed hard. A nail or a sharp pencil can scratch it. Use the soft pad of your finger, never the tip.
The buttons are on the side. There are usually three. One long button on one side turns the phone on and off, and also locks the screen so your jeb does not press things by mistake. Two smaller buttons on the other side make the sound louder or quieter. Press the lower one when the azan from the loudspeaker outside is being broadcast and you do not want your phone ringing on top of it. The buttons are old fashioned, like the switches on a fan, and they will not change.
An app is a small picture on the screen that, when you tap it, opens up into a useful tool. JazzCash is one app. WhatsApp is another. Tapping is the lightest possible touch with one finger. Tap once and let go, the way you would press a doorbell at your khala's flat. The app fills the screen. To leave the app and come back to the home screen, you swipe up from the very bottom of the screen, a smooth motion as if you are wiping a small drop of water off a table.
Two more motions you will use a hundred times a day. Swipe down from the top is like opening a small drawer. Inside the drawer are quick switches for wifi, mobile data, torch, and the brightness of the screen. Swipe up from the bottom takes you home. If you swipe up but stop halfway and hold for a moment, you see all the apps you have opened recently, like a stack of books on the dressing table. Tap any one to go back to it. Tap the small cross or swipe it sideways to close it.
Estimated time: 10 min