The Ministry of Youth and ICT has done its best to make sure smartphone penetration goes up. Well, at university, I think they have almost achieved their target. Everyone is getting a smartphone.

Some shady phone companies made a smart phone as cheap as Rwf 25,000 and below - guys have totally taken it to another level. There is a chance I also got one at that price but now it’s becoming a little too much. 

I called a friend of mine yesterday, and asked him why he wasn’t picking up his phone earlier and he replied saying, "My smartphone was still charging.” Did he have to use the word smartphone? Some other time I asked someone about an assignment and he replied, "The day before I got my smartphone is the day the professor assigned the work.” The word "smartphone” has become the parameter for everything that’s going on. 

As for WhatsApp, it is giving me a headache. With all the excitement for it, people send messages like as if there will be a gift for the one that sends the most messages. Worst moment was when I was online, chatting with this lady and as the conversation got heated, I saw this message from a classmate, "Hey, I am still waiting for my money and I see you’re online.” I felt like throwing away my phone and jumping onto a plane with disappearing potential. 

The funny part of this is that these smartphones give students a hard time; you find a student struggling with it, calling wrong numbers and struggling to hang up. So I, being the one that knows my way around the apps, I am the teacher. Some dude brought his phone to me for help and because of the long struggle he has had with it, the phone is all sweaty and sticky like it’s from having a swim in honey. Well, I must say I do love it when the ladies bring their phones to me because maybe, just maybe, I will get a girlfriend soon. 

Now that the telecoms are slowly raising the prices of internet, I am impressed with the way people dread their smartphones now. WhatsApp messages are no longer as many as they used to be. Thank God!