When South Africans need to travel long distances across their country they tend to opt for flight or road travel by bus, taxi or car. There are famous luxury trains but they tend to be too expensive for most people. Metropolitan trains travel only short distances.
The merits of travelling by car, for example from Port Elizabeth to Durban are that one is independent and can get to one's exact destination in a suburban street. However, this trip can take up to twelve hours, whereas flying to an air port and then hiring a car to travel the short remaining distance can take about two hours.
Another disadvantage of the road trip option is that it is highly dangerous. Passenger cars speed past each other at death defying speeds until they come to a lumbering pantechnicon, when they pile up into a restless convoy. Traffic cops are rarely seen until they step from a ditch to hand out a hefty fine for a petty offence. In view of all the frustration associated with road travel it is additionally significant that air travel is much safer anyway, according to statistics.
From midway through the twentieth century flying became a preferred mode of travel. For what seemed like a very long time airlines issued little booklets of tickets filled with small print. Mysteriously, the word 'void' was printed across them. Pages were torn off at various stages of the boarding process, but a traveller was left at the end of his trip with a wad of paper that seemed to remain important because the word 'void' remained as a vague threat.
Lap top computers and the Internet came some time after passenger jets and online booking systems followed hot on their heels. These innovations brought about a massive red-education process for adults. In most cases it was a case of self-education and learning by trial and error for a generation which has probably faced more change than any other generation in history.
Online booking sites simplify the process of booking. It is possible to compare prices, book accommodation and hire a car, all in a single smooth operation. Despite these amazing advances a complicated process of post school education has to be undertaken in order to allow members of the public to take advantage of what is available.
IT innovations took place in the course of a giant leap forward towards the end of the twentieth century. Seminal discoveries as significant as the printing press began to rapidly transform the world. Many people who had already made their mark upon the world had to cope with technology that their children understood better than they.
A process of informal adult education has to accompany technological inventions that keep coming. People born before the nineteen eighties have to cope with skills that did not exist when they were at school, yet those skills are essential for coping basic activities like booking a flight. Emotional and intellectual changes are essential. Because children naturally play with toys they are better than adults at discovering how gadgets work. Humiliated and unsure many adults find themselves in the position of illiterates. They also have to acquire intellectual understanding of processes that require close attention to detail and ineluctable logic. A tick in the wrong box can have bad consequences. Despite these challenges the advantages of new technology are so compelling that they cannot be overlooked.
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