Today, I would like to share a rather interesting piece of news. The link to this can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/14/new-york-city-launches-mo_n_823250.html?ref=fb&src=sp Basically, The New York City Health Department has made a smartphone application for iPhones and Android devices that will help users locate the nearest place in the area giving out free condoms. Now, I would like to share my views on this topic, and more importantly, whether it can work in Singapore.
“We want New York City to be the safest city in the world to have sex,” said the city’s Assistant Health Commissioner Dr. Monica Sweeney. “A lot of people come here for that, so we want them to practice safer sex.” This basically sums up the whole purpose of this new initiative. Technically, this is a good imitative that can greatly help to lessen the problem of premature sex and the like, but I have a question in mind here. Who would actually whip out their iPhone and check for the nearest free condom distribution area, and then proceed on to get the condom? If two young people want to have premature sex, they have already shown their brashness and how they act without considering the consequences. Will they actually stop to look for a free condom before proceeding on to have sex? I doubt so. However, this is not to say that this initiative will not work. Most middle-aged couples would probably know the danger and dilemma when having an unwanted baby, and at least they would have the sense and maturity to take advantage of this program and have safe sex instead of running the risk of having an unwanted baby.
Now, I will express my feelings on whether I feel that this initiative would work on Singapore. Personally, I think that this plan would backfire. This is mainly because of a few reasons. Firstly, this is because we Singaporeans have a little too much pride, and always do not want to appear different from the crowd, always preferring to blend in with the crowd and not attracting so much attention to themselves. Think about it, if you see a person taking the condoms from the free condoms distributor, you would definitely think that he is going to have sex. Most Singaporeans, or Asians for that matter, are too conservative, and I am sure most of us do not want to announce to the whole world that we are going to have sex soon, and hence I’m taking this free condom. It is just too embarrassing for most Singaporeans, and this would ultimately lead to most people refraining from taking the free condoms, which will cause the plan to backfire.
Secondly, what I feel will be the downfall of this initiative if introduced in Singapore is the fact that there are still a large number of Singaporeans without any smartphones yet, instead, they are still using the old mobile phones. As this initiative is only limited to those with smartphones, this would cause in a much smaller scope of people actually using the app. Those people with mobile phones are unable to use this function, and hence they are not exposed to this app, and this would defeat the purpose of making Singapore a safe place to have sex, seeing how there are still a considerable number of people without smartphones yet. Coupled with the fact that only a few Singaporeans would actually use the app and take the free condoms, I think that this plan’s success will be greatly limited.
Secondly, what I feel will be the downfall of this initiative if introduced in Singapore is the fact that there are still a large number of Singaporeans without any smartphones yet, instead, they are still using the old mobile phones. As this initiative is only limited to those with smartphones, this would cause in a much smaller scope of people actually using the app. Those people with mobile phones are unable to use this function, and hence they are not exposed to this app, and this would defeat the purpose of making Singapore a safe place to have sex, seeing how there are still a considerable number of people without smartphones yet. Coupled with the fact that only a few Singaporeans would actually use the app and take the free condoms, I think that this plan’s success will be greatly limited.
The third reason, in my opinion, is that in Singapore, sex is not an integral part of many people’s lives, and our lives are dominated by the hectic rat race. Therefore, spending money and resources on developing and updating this app would turn out to be useless anyway, as there would not be many people actually using the app. With the two reasons I have stated above, this problem is greatly compounded and that would result in a very small minority of people actually using this app.
In a nutshell, what I am writing here today is about introducing the new initiative by the New York City Health Department and stating my thoughts and opinions and feelings about whether such an initiative would be useful for Singaporeans. As you can easily infer from the reasons that I had given, I feel that in order for this initiative to thrive in Singapore, a few things need to be changed, namely, the mindset and perspective of Singaporeans and the availability and appeal of smartphones. This is a rather fresh topic and comments with differing opinions are welcome!
Thank you! (:
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