Buttons - Story of a Virtual Faux pas

My very first introduction to buttons was the buttons on my frocks. As a toddler, the frock that was like a jacket and had button running from top to bottom, was my favourite. I fortunately found a similar one for my daughter, when she was two years old.

Then there were buttons on the school shirts. The white ones. And on the sweaters. I have chewed on quite a few of them after they fell off, I found stray buttons lying around in the house. I remember one particular button on a yellow sweater, that tasted remotely of orange lozenges. I chewed that one on the sleeve of my sweater very often. Eventually I grew out of the chewing age.

Those were the days of license raj in India and most threads that were used to sew the buttons were not long lasting. And so, most of these buttons would keep falling off, to be replaced either by safety-pins or with press buttons. And therefore we had a white dog shaped empty box of Calcium that we filled with stray buttons of all colours and sizes.

When I was probably thirteen, I learnt about a button bag on Doordarshan, a cloth bag stitched on with buttons of all shapes, sizes and colours. I wanted to have more and more buttons. But I never got on to making a button bag. Stitching them on was quite a labourious task.

Anyway, in my early years buttons had only one meaning. The ones used on clothes. But buttons have a different connotation too, as I started to discover. The 'on' button on TV to begin with. We were accustomed to the black switches on wooden switch boards or knobs in the mixer grinder. Buttons did not switch on or off many things earlier. But TVs came with buttons and our index finger became the key to a new and exciting world.

And soon desktops came with buttons. One on the monitor, one on the CPU, one on the UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) etc etc...  

Desktops soon turned into laptops, buttons by then had truly become ubiquitous. A press of a button meant, we were in and out of office. We could be anywhere and yet working. Work from home became the most happening way to be employed. Though only a few privileged ones got this opportunity. There was another underprivileged group of people, who could now ‘work from work’ and ‘work from home’, round the clock.

And soon smart phones and Tablets created a new form of buttons, virtual buttons! Buttons that could be pressed only when there was power on the phone. The concept of virtual gadgets took shape. What we have today within our fingertips, are countless small buttons, that will download just anything from the virtual space, into our smart phones and into our lives.

My friends and family and all my tasks are just a click away. My phone works like a dutiful butler, beeping away every so often, to tell me someone has reached out to me, or something needs to be done.

In this scenario, what happens to slippery fingers and what happens when one wrong button is pressed? With the touch sensitive virtual buttons, there is very little scope for small mistakes, a lot more for big ones. And there is one that I made just two days ago…

My new smart phone is the main culprit. I did not have enough space in the old phone to have too many apps on it. Apps are lethal weapons I must say. Best to have as few of them as possible. But a lesson learnt too late.

And so I downloaded one of the professional networking sites, so I could have it on my fingertips! Not knowing the wows of having slippery fingertips. All went well till the download, besides that, I pressed one button too many. Suggested Contacts “Invite All”, one click of the button, I have no idea how many people I have invited. Hundreds maybe. I have never been a great believer of networking sites till date. Not that it is wrong. I just come from a different era of buttons. And now my phone is loaded with, “your invitation is accepted”. Thanks to all who have been gracious enough to accept my invite. 

I am still tending to my slippery index finger. A plaster for a few days would really help my cause. But there is no stopping me. I am already looking for more and more apps to download on my little device, my trusty butler who understands nothing, but the press of buttons...