Filofax

Growing up, I was never an organized person.  I would write phone numbers down on any piece of paper I could get my hands on, and the same went for red letter dates I committed to and had to keep.

More often than not, I find myself rummaging through the trash in my room and bits of paper inside my bag looking for that all important phone number or schedule I set up.  After failing to find what I was looking for, I come to a realization that I have lost them, or discover after the laundry that I left them in my pockets and have already disintegrated after a full wash cycle (I actually lost quite a number of dates because of this).

To my elation, the Filofax (from the words file-of-facts) came along.  It’s that leather-bound Personal organizer/planner that was trendy and functional.  During High School and College, almost everyone had one. 

For me, it was heaven-sent, although the euphoria lasted only for a short while.  The jubilation of having an organized life suddenly turned to terror when one day, I misplaced my Filofax.  I realized that I have grown dependent on it and was more lost without it after gotten used to it, than before when I didn’t have one.   This terror further grew to panic when I saw it in the hands of my girlfriend (who quickly became my ex-girlfriend after that).  “Yari!”

(How many of us have gone through the same ordeal after losing our cellphones or laptops?)

It was then that I realized that with the comfort this simple contraption gave me, a corresponding or even greater responsibility came along – to take care of the information I kept, if not for my own personal sake, for the sake of the people who would be affected by them.

In this day and age when less and less folks keep their information in Filofaxes and more and more keep them digitally, in PDAs, smartphones, and in PCs, we have to ask if we are responsible enough to keep the information entrusted to us.

Technology is still developing and the comforts technology will bring us are endless.  However, we have gotten so used to the technology in front of us that we have become so trusting with them. 

We should not fall into the trap of being too lax and forget that the only thing that stands between the secrecy of our information and those who would want to get their hands on them, is a mere password stored in devices created by others, or in servers controlled and maintained by their creators.

Remember, Hayden Kho says that his videos were part of his personal diary, but it would have been different if he simply wrote down his escapades on a Filofax and lost it, than lose control of his digital files the way he did.