Phone Swap Day for partners — How dangerous is it?

Relationships are said to be on slippery slopes.

Far more than ever before, marriages are allegedly collapsing before our very eyes such that there is very little hope for the sacred institution.

And so when a reminder was posted on one of the WhatsApp platforms I belong to that August 4 was to be celebrated as International Partner’s Phone Swap Day, I thought someone was trying to open a can of worms in relationships.

International Phone Swap Day

International Phone Swap Day is a day meant for couples, partners, boyfriends and girlfriends to exchange mobile phones just for a day.

Presumably, this was a day for couples and anyone in serious relationships to assess each other. I forwarded the information to another chat group I belong to, just to gauge moods.

Some of the comments shared on the platform said phone swap was dangerous. Others said it was going to be chaotic while others expressed the belief that it was going to bring upsets in homes.

Though the comments shared in the chat room made fun, the chat room members almost invariably saw danger ahead of the day.

On reflection, i can see there seems to be a serious import in the suggestion to swap — phones a reality check on infidelity?

Privacy of mobile phones

Mobile phones, particularly the smartphones, are now more than a human brain.

They act as safe deposits. They store private numbers of scores of people, pet names and pictures of family and friends, conversations with high and low profile people, private bank transactions and business secrets.

Also stored in mobile phone files is some information that, ordinarily, spouses would never get to know.

Phone Swap Day means that someone is going to discover all that?

Certainly the day has the potential and could be a recipe for chaos in relationships.

Mobile phones, apart from their convenience, are ordinarily meant to serve private and personal use.

This is perhaps one of the reasons telephone directories do not list them.

By the way, what happened to those yellow telephone directories which used to be published by Ghana Telecom, now Vodafone?

They were quite helpful in many ways. About 10 years ago, I was able to make contact with a friend I had not seen or heard from since our university days, having located his landline number listed in an old telephone directory.

Mobile phone numbers are essentially private as opposed to handsets which are accessed by anyone.

At a former place of work and as part of the corporate culture, private mobile phone numbers were not to be captured on business cards.

This was because business cards were seen purely as for business rather than for social networking.

The rationale was that business cards were given out to business associates to facilitate business-related transactions. Such transactions were to be done during working hours and on office phones.

All this was to emphasise the point that mobile phones were for private use and one was not to mix the two.

The unwritten explanation was that conversation outside work matters was to be considered as private and therefore should be matters between the two in a private space.

This was a culture meant to respect privacy of the individual employee.

Things may have changed in the face of fierce competition, where speed to market is of essence. The fact, though, still remains that mobile phones are private.

Transparency in relationships

International PhoneSwapping Day seems to be encouraging some degree of transparency in relationships.

That is good. Someone once said that there was too much infidelity in relationships and mobile phones seem to be accentuating the problem.

A partner could be somewhere with another person and yet would call home to say he or she is at work. It has encouraged telling of lies too.

Mobile phone conversations and text messages have betrayed people and led to quarrels in homes between spouses or partners. So, much as the intention behind a Phone Swap Day could be positive, it could also bring chaos in homes.

One needs a host of international days to draw attention to the plethora of injustices and crimes that are going on in our world today.

More focus is rather needed on how to create equity for all in the midst of turmoil which has plagued our 21st century with the misery of wars, unemployment, poverty, hunger and diseases while others enjoy it all in abundance.

What the international space really needs is a whole year of justice and equity. As for Phone Swap Day, it will only come in to worsen the plight of relationships. It is like digging holes for couples and partners to fall into.

vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com