How technology has stolen the Xmas fellowship

On Christmas Day, Oliver Kimanthi will break tradition: he will not go to his rural home in Embu. Rather, he will be unwinding at the Buffet Park in Hurlingham, Nairobi.

As the sole breadwinner, his extended family looks up to Kimanthi to finance all the Christmas festivities at home. But the fact that he will not be travelling to Embu does not mean they will miss his goodies. It is only the delivery mode that has changed, thanks to technology.

Gone are the days he would have to send packages by the informal matatu courier services, which could be unreliable at times. As a result of this uncertainty, he would be forced to travel upcountry before Christmas Day just to make sure his loved ones enjoyed the festive season.

Kimanthi recalls how he would have to walk to the local market to scout for a stocky billy goat and shepherd it home ahead of the big day.

Today, this hassle is behind him. In fact, it took him under 30 minutes to complete the whole Christmas “assignment”: a dash to the ATM, then to an M-Pesa shop and, from the comfort of his office, he sent money to his relatives back home.

“I now don’t have to endure inflated fares, scarce vehicles and other inconveniences in the name of enjoying Christmas,” Kimanthi says with a generous smile.

It is quite a hassle to travel upcountry, especially by public service vehicles, as the fares have not only doubled but the vehicles are quite rare to come by.

Kimanthi is just one of the many Kenyans who will be celebrating Christmas in a new style, thanks to the advances the country has made especially in information and communication technology.

But this technology has also a flip side. There will be lonely parents whose children will not be travelling home for the Christmas get-together. There are also fewer people visiting the cards section in shopping malls to buy their friends and relatives Christmas cards.

Considered ancient

Some of these practices are now considered “ancient”.

This Christmas, the mobile money transfer services will be inundated with activity, with those who will not be visiting their loved ones sending them “Christmas” via M-Pesa, Airtel money, Orange Money, yu and others.

Those living abroad will rely on global money transfer services like NationHela, MoneyGram and Western Union to spread the Christmas cheer to their loved ones back here.

Instead of buying and sending cards, the majority of Kenyans who own a cell phone will be using the new media to send the holiday messages. There will be text messages, emails, multi-media messages and social media platforms such as Skype, Facebook and Twitter.

The trendy communication tools available on smartphones such as WhatsApp, Tango, Viber and Blackberry Messenger (BBM), which are popular among the youth, will also come into play.

With recording capabilities, users of smartphones can now customise messages according to the relationship between the sender and the recipient.

Christmas text, picture and audio messages and videos are already doing the rounds on these phone applications.

Phyllis Kibisu says she will not post a Christmas card to her relatives. Instead, she will send them a creative text message using her cell phone.

“I feel wishing people merry Christmas using technology is better than the traditional means,” she says.

She is not alone. Irene Awuor will also send her best wishes to her fiancé who lives in Canada via the Net. In the past week, Awuor and her boyfriend have exchanged at least 10 Christmas-themed video and audio messages.

“We have also been talking on Skype wishing each other happy holidays. I am not expecting a card from him and I also hope he is not,” she says.

A Christmas survey released last Friday by Ipsos Synovate Kenya indicated that only 6 per cent of the spouses will send each other seasonal greeting cards and only 2 per cent of the children will send their parents cards. The survey shows no parent will send a card to their children.

Christmas, being a season when long lost friends and relatives get to meet and interact, has always been a season of harvest for commercial photographers as people capture those happy moments. But, with the developed high definition cameras in smartphones that take high resolution photographs, this group is recording low business.

Last year, Ideos was the most popular smartphone in Kenya but Samsung has eaten up this market with the entry of the new Galaxy series.

Phones, most of which are data-enabled, have become a faster and more convenient way of sharing the light moments almost in realtime with friends either on the phone or social media sites. There is also the possibility of printing them.

Statistics indicate that global shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled about 42 per cent in September from a year ago to 7.58 million units, with compact offerings falling 48 per cent, according to Japan’s Camera and Imaging Products Association.

But IT expert Alex Gakuru argues that the change in the trend does not mean people prefer electronic wishes to physical cards.

“My considered view is that since electronic cards are all they can get, then they appreciate receiving them as opposed to getting nothing,” he says. “Nothing compares to receiving an original, especially handmade, card on special occasions such as birthday or the festive season.”

Gakuru blames laziness more than the new technology for the loss of the Christmas glamour.

“With new technologies mass mailing and ‘send to many’ make it possible to send one electronic card to an infinite number of people,” he says.

He says the simplicity of recipients’ multiplication diminishes the special feeling attached to electronic cards.

“The new e-cards culture suppresses creativity,” he adds.

Gakuru says the number of physical cards being sent will continue declining, which could be good news for the environment.

Journalist Stanley Wabomba agrees that the new technology is a godsend to save the environment. As a result, Wabomba will gladly send the text messages for those not in social media networks and complete the wishes using Twitter and Facebook.

“It (physical card) is expensive and slower to reach the target compared to a tweet, FB update, SMS or call, plus it’s also environmentally sensitive,” he says.

Gakuru says the rising cost of living is also to blame.

“I am inclined to believe that our kind and caring people find e-cards which enable them to at least send something from their hearts despite the biting pocket constraints,” he says. “Sadly, the sum total effect is increasing telecommunications companies’ profits and in the process killing other local creative entrepreneurs in the design and graphics industries.”

George Njoroge, an IT expert at East African Data Handlers, argues that technology is the major reason, being mostly influenced by timeliness, cost and ease to personalise.

“To the sender the electronic card is easier to work with; this is because it can be sent to a number of people with limited time. Thus being cost-effective,” Njoroge says.

But another IT expert Conrad Akunga says he instantly deletes e-cards as almost no effort goes into their creation as is the case with the physical cards.

“Technology reduces the intimate human interaction between people. Compare and contrast the pleasure of opening a handwritten letter addressed to you versus an e-card,” he says.