Benewah Diaries: The Google cardboard learning expedition

Hey, y’all doin’ good?  I’m Benewah, a.k.a Benny–just practicing my L.A.F.A. (Locally Acquired Foreign Accent.)

I am thirty-something and just realized that everyone—that is the younger generation– seems to have been born speaking either American English or British English (Mind you, not the Queen’s proper English)

I am not going to be left behind especially as I still want to identify with the young ones. (Signs of midlife crises)

It had never occurred to me that I had grown old until a young lady boldly told me that the lyrics of a song was Nigeria.

Honestly, I did a double take. Nigeria?!! Really? Could I say that I speak or sing Ghana!

She said, it was a description–like a genre.  It just means that the song was in a Nigerian language or Nigerian languages.

What could I say?– but Ayooo.  They say, no one is the repository of all knowledge and so I learn.

Naso?

In the same vein, I decided to learn a bit more about the Google cardboard.  I was curious.

As I climbed the stairs to the fourth and final floor of the seminar venue, I made a mental note to leave when it was still light.

It was a narrow staircase with cheap bannisters that rattled when touched. It unnerved me and I must say, my common sense told me it was very unsafe.

The moment I walked into the reception, I knew the organizers responsible had to be young: plenty of exuberance and innocence but a strong lack of professionalism.   I walked up to a desk–and a girl, probably late teens to early twenties, speaking on a tablet, redirects me to another directly opposite her.

This second desk has the Google cardboard on display with two other teenagers –a guy and a gal.

The guy had a laptop and was attending to another curious person. The gal handed me some sheet torn out of a shorthand spiral notebook and told me to register.  After carefully studying the writings on the sheet, I decipher the names and email addresses of others. I add mine to the lot and I’m directed to the main hall. It was hot. A crowd of teens and twenty-somethings. All chairs were taken and a good number were moving and standing around in the back of the room. A documentary of some sort on the Google cardboard was going on.

There were about ten Google cardboards for about a hundred persons.  In other words, one Google cardboard to every ten persons.

The idea was to pass it around so everyone could experience it. It wasn’t happening. Those who had it had it. So I stood wondering when to make my exit.  Finally, a young guy seeing my bewildered countenance, asked me if I had had the chance to look into the card box.

I said no. He immediately launched into his speech on the Google cardboard.

In summary, watch 3-D on your android or iPhone with the Google cardboard on top of your nose and have fun. No need to go to the 3-D cinemas.

I watched a few seconds with the cardboard. It is virtual reality at your fingertips. To fully experience it, you will have to move your entire body and be an active participant. It cannot be watched like the ordinary TV Screen.  I was dizzy from moving slightly from side to side. That was it for me.

The young generation might think that it is the in-thing. Let gamers hail it, let teenagers love it– but for me, Benewah Gyekye Bannerman, it is just another item widening the gulf between my generation and the next.

By Benewah Gyekye Bannermann

(Beanie-waa, Jie-chi, Banner-mann)

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