Essay concerning how a particular technology or technological practice has impacted me in the past.
After graduating from Texas A&M in 2000, I took a month off then packed up and moved to New York City with a couple of friends who had accepted jobs there. I was interested in the publishing industry, editing in particular, and NYC seemed like the place to be. In theory, this was a good idea. The thought of moving to the big city and living the "high life" was the most exciting decision I had ever made. However, once I got settled in and started my new job, I actually had time to slow down and take a look around. I realized that the only people I knew were my roommates. Being a person who has always been surrounded by friends and family, being basically all alone and in a new place, hundreds of miles away from home, can be a very lonely experience. I would talk to my sister and my friends on the phone daily, but it just wasn’t the same as seeing them face to face. While they were hanging out at happy hour, drinking and laughing it up on a Thursday afternoon, I was sitting alone in my apartment with nothing to do but watch TV. Although I enjoyed spending time with my roommates, they both worked in the stocks/trade industry and worked long hours, so they were rarely home. After a couple of months of total loneliness, my sister and I finally came up with a solution (I was desperate and she was tired of hearing me bawl nightly). We each bought a web camera and signed up for instant messaging. We used both at home and at work. Neither of us had tried this before because we had always lived close enough to see each other whenever we wanted. It was an experience to say the least. But honestly, I cannot express how comforting it was to see her face at night before I went to sleep. Whether we were sitting at the computer chatting through IM or talking on the phone with the web cameras on, it was wonderful to see her reactions to my comments and vice versa. I felt like she was actually in the room with me and that feeling was exactly what I needed. Plus, instead of just describing all the new clothes, shoes, etc. we had bought recently (we have always been shopping freaks - a bad habit we got honest from our mother!) we could actually show each other using our nifty new web cameras.
The impact of having this technology at hand really hit home on September 11th. I'm sure I don't even have to express the import of this particular day. When the first plane hit, I was in my apartment getting ready for work. I did not have the TV or radio on, so I did not know anything out of the ordinary was happening. As I left my apartment building to walk to work, I looked towards the end of the island and could see a building on fire. I didn't know what building it was, as it was partially blocked from view by other skyscrapers, and I had no idea why it was on fire. But, thinking it wasn't anything too shocking, I stopped to look with a few other pedestrians then continued on my way. Once I arrived at work, I turned on my web cam and IM to chat with my sister. About this time, the second plane hit the Twin Towers. By then, we in the office knew something was up, but only having the radio and considering there was still mass confusion in the city as to what was actually happening, we did not know exactly what was going on. My sister, on the other hand, was at home with the TV on, watching the whole thing. She turned her web cam on her TV so I could watch while she IM'ed me what was happening. It's a funny thing when a person hundreds of miles away has to show you what is happening 50 blocks away from you over the Internet. Technology is truly an amazing thing. It was also a comfort for my mother in the coming week. Our building was evacuated (due to close proximity to the Empire State building) and our office closed for a week. During this time, all the phone lines were down due to so many calls trying to come through. Needless to say, my mother was in a state of panic until my sister got her on the computer to chat with me over IM and to see my face through the web cam. She now thinks it is the best thing ever invented!
Thinking back on the experience, technology not only impacted me, but my family also. Without it, we would not have been able to communicate, and also, the impact of such an important event was shared closely between us, which made it all the more amazing.
After graduating from Texas A&M in 2000, I took a month off then packed up and moved to New York City with a couple of friends who had accepted jobs there. I was interested in the publishing industry, editing in particular, and NYC seemed like the place to be. In theory, this was a good idea. The thought of moving to the big city and living the "high life" was the most exciting decision I had ever made. However, once I got settled in and started my new job, I actually had time to slow down and take a look around. I realized that the only people I knew were my roommates. Being a person who has always been surrounded by friends and family, being basically all alone and in a new place, hundreds of miles away from home, can be a very lonely experience. I would talk to my sister and my friends on the phone daily, but it just wasn’t the same as seeing them face to face. While they were hanging out at happy hour, drinking and laughing it up on a Thursday afternoon, I was sitting alone in my apartment with nothing to do but watch TV. Although I enjoyed spending time with my roommates, they both worked in the stocks/trade industry and worked long hours, so they were rarely home. After a couple of months of total loneliness, my sister and I finally came up with a solution (I was desperate and she was tired of hearing me bawl nightly). We each bought a web camera and signed up for instant messaging. We used both at home and at work. Neither of us had tried this before because we had always lived close enough to see each other whenever we wanted. It was an experience to say the least. But honestly, I cannot express how comforting it was to see her face at night before I went to sleep. Whether we were sitting at the computer chatting through IM or talking on the phone with the web cameras on, it was wonderful to see her reactions to my comments and vice versa. I felt like she was actually in the room with me and that feeling was exactly what I needed. Plus, instead of just describing all the new clothes, shoes, etc. we had bought recently (we have always been shopping freaks - a bad habit we got honest from our mother!) we could actually show each other using our nifty new web cameras.
The impact of having this technology at hand really hit home on September 11th. I'm sure I don't even have to express the import of this particular day. When the first plane hit, I was in my apartment getting ready for work. I did not have the TV or radio on, so I did not know anything out of the ordinary was happening. As I left my apartment building to walk to work, I looked towards the end of the island and could see a building on fire. I didn't know what building it was, as it was partially blocked from view by other skyscrapers, and I had no idea why it was on fire. But, thinking it wasn't anything too shocking, I stopped to look with a few other pedestrians then continued on my way. Once I arrived at work, I turned on my web cam and IM to chat with my sister. About this time, the second plane hit the Twin Towers. By then, we in the office knew something was up, but only having the radio and considering there was still mass confusion in the city as to what was actually happening, we did not know exactly what was going on. My sister, on the other hand, was at home with the TV on, watching the whole thing. She turned her web cam on her TV so I could watch while she IM'ed me what was happening. It's a funny thing when a person hundreds of miles away has to show you what is happening 50 blocks away from you over the Internet. Technology is truly an amazing thing. It was also a comfort for my mother in the coming week. Our building was evacuated (due to close proximity to the Empire State building) and our office closed for a week. During this time, all the phone lines were down due to so many calls trying to come through. Needless to say, my mother was in a state of panic until my sister got her on the computer to chat with me over IM and to see my face through the web cam. She now thinks it is the best thing ever invented!
Thinking back on the experience, technology not only impacted me, but my family also. Without it, we would not have been able to communicate, and also, the impact of such an important event was shared closely between us, which made it all the more amazing.
posted by JulieS at 9:54 AM
1 Comments:
Others have commented on how important is was to be/feel "connected" to friends and family when in a new situation (or when a loved one had to go away). It makes you think: what did people do before this type of mobile technology was so prevalent? How about the pioneers--cliche'd, perhaps, but they had to really think that, by leaving their homes, they were for all intents and purposes, cutting all communicaiotn off from these people, for a significant amount of time, if not for ever.
So what does it say about our culture that we NEED this connection? Who needs it? How have we evolved in this way?
Isn't it ironic, too, that the very thing that's supposed to de-humanize us--technology--is what you and others have used to connect? What do you think about that? Technology can be used to distance humans...or to connect them. How can that be? And how can we emphasize one, given, say, our teaching expectations here?
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