Dwindling delights and mobile frights

A former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser told us life wasn't meant to be easy, but his plagiarized quote left out part of the original message.

George Bernard Shaw added the more optimistic: " but take courage, it can be delightful."

Unfortunately those delights seem to be dwindling, and in the latest iteration of governments at Federal and State levels, it is getting less easy by the day on many levels. Malcolm may have had a glimpse of the future.

Put cost of living pressures and racial division including antisemitism at the top of my list, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds modern technology's instant connectivity, AI, the push for digital IDs and ultimately a cashless society, of increasing concern.

For the past couple of weeks my mobile phone has been leading the charge for my tossing and turning at night. Why? Blame Optus for its confusing messaging regarding the closure of its 3G network and the imminent switch to 4G.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that my life does not revolve around my smart phone. I shake my head in wonder at the sight of girls, women, also boys and some men who walk along our beautiful beach with their phone glued to their ear; or who cross busy roads while texting or scrolling on their devices.

With practically noiseless electric scooters and bikes now sharing our footpaths and streets, it's an accident waiting to happen.

But thanks to the "delights" of modern life, a smart phone is now a necessity rather than a convenience. Even without the need to make or receive calls, practically every major business and government department now demands a digital code sent by SMS to make contact or log in.

And those codes are sent to my smartphone. But then I received a text from Optus which made me wonder if my phone really was smart.

"IMPORTANT NOTICE: Hi there, we're reaching out to let you know that you'll need to turn on 'VoLTE' calling on your device settings… so that you can make voice calls over our 4G network from 28 October 2024. Otherwise you won't be able to make voice calls from this date, as we're switching off our 3G network, and your ability to call Triple Zero may be impacted.

To turn on VoLTE see our handy guide at optus.com.au/volte…"

Well that caught me by surprise as I thought my Galaxy android phone had access to 4G when I bought it a couple of years ago, but that message sounded definite.