Our first family mobile phone came into our lives in 1993. It was a Nokia P4000 phone, cost us over $1000 and weighs nearly one kilogram. When my father first brought it home, we felt as if we had the world in our hands. Who in those days would have dreamt of acquiring a mobile phone? It was generally thought to be symbol of wealth and status. Yet our family had neither of the two. It was our belief that such technologies will enhance our lives that gave way to our first mobile phone.

It played a major role in our family's technological revolution. It became the main topic during our daily dinners; how was it working, what new functions have we discovered, who have we called on the phone and so on. This phone came with only one simple function of dialling and answering. It has a small Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) screen that can only contain 2 lines of characters. It had a small memory that stored the last ten numbers dialled or received and allowed the user to retrieve that information. You could adjust the volume of the earpiece by pushing some buttons around the side of the phone, and for better connection, there is an extendable antenna to facilitate this.

Connection was good then, considering that it had no other competition and very few people could afford a mobile phone. However, its main drawbacks were the weight, clarity of the transmission and its outlook. Overall, weighing around one kilogram, it looked and felt like a small rectangular piece of brick. It did not work on today's Global Satellite for Mobile Communication (GSM) network, and thus did not use a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card. Rather, due to the small amount of mobile phone users in Singapore back then, all such phones worked on a direct wireless connection to the Singapore Telecom transmitting stations, which were very few as well. As such, messages were often very distorted and clarity was very bad.

Today, the phone lies in our display shelf of memories and antiques. As I look back to those days of our first mobile phone, I can still feel a sense of deep fondness. It was our first family breakthrough in technology above all other things, and it opened the door for us to advance into the technology age. Today, all of us have a mobile phone each that we bring to school and work everyday. My father's latest phone, the Ericsson R320 even allows Internet applications. Although the old Nokia P4000 has become obsolete, it will continue to remind us of how technological advances can enrich our lives and improve our consciousness, and how with the correct approach and attitudes, we can fully harness the full potential of these advances to beautify our lives to greater heights.