Smart Phones Smart Water

Smart has lost its meaning, like I love you. Very soon, they'll sell smart pasta. Cellphones are smart, aren’t they? They don’t sit at home and wait for suitors. They are mobile, on the road trying to beat morning traffic and summer road construction. They are in our pockets 24/7. In fact, they are the third arm. That is why I don’t understand the term smart phone.

I’m even more confused now because everything is labeled smart. I wasn’t aware there’s also ‘smart’ water until I saw bottles at a grocery store. What next? Smart brooms? 

It won’t be long before we see ‘smart’ feeding bottles that ensure that kids don’t cry when mummy is on her phone laughing at GIF’s. Using smart in any marketing campaign guarantees attention like that bottled water at the store.

I thought the push and pull was between the merits and demerits of bottled water and tap water. Little did I know that the game has been upped to: smart water?

What is the dictionary meaning of smart? I believed the digital hype and got rid of my hard copy dictionary (not a smart move in retrospect), which is why I went online to find the meaning of the adjective, smart. Synonyms include intelligence, bright or sharp.

Water is naturally smart because it is rain that has settled down in various neighbourhood like rivers, waterfalls, lakes and oceans. Water is smart because it is born free. It runs down mountains and rocks without green, blue, black or red passports.

One of the joys of driving from Pietermaritzburg to Durban is taking a break just before the Marianhill Toll Plaza, and collecting water that trickles down the little hill with your hands. 

Lesotho, the country that is surrounded by South Africa, is famous for mountains. What is less known are springs that run down those mountains. Cold cold water. Now that is ‘smart water.’

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.