Most of us
have heard the saying, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” What do you
think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?
The best
thing since sliced bread, eh?!?! I would have to say today’s technology! Having
lived out of touch with everyday technology for over a decade and ½, I have
been having a lot of fun with it since returning to the land of cell phones,
wi-fi, etc…I’m still not one of those who is attached and addicted to my phone.
In fact, I rarely text or ever get phone calls on it. I have it for keeping in touch with those I
love, and it’s handy in the car or out and about (when I don’t have wi-fi
access) to look up directions or information on nearby restaurants, and so
forth. But phones are not the only
technical fun I’ve been reintroduced to since moving back to the mainland…
One of the
first things I did upon moving back was visit our local public library, and I
was so excited to find out that I could set up my family’s Kindles for checking
out books. How cool is that?! We had our Kindles before we left the islands,
but we had to go to one of the few wi-fi spots on island and purchase books
that we wanted. Sometimes, the download times were really long too. Not long after we left, wi-fi access finally
arrived in resident homes, but for all our years there, we were separated from
it, and our library certainly didn’t have that type of technology. I know, this
is nothing new to everyone else, but for those of us who were “out of the loop”
all the years that the IPOD, IPAD, tablets, and cell phones were rapidly
changing and developing, it’s like being frozen in time and then entering back
into the world and discovering it’s much different than when you last lived in
it….like Captain America, if you will.
At first, it was overwhelming, and I didn’t want to do too much with it.
It was foreign to my husband and I both, but now I’m feeling much more
comfortable with using it to help make life more efficient.
Like all
man-made things in this world, there are advantages and disadvantages to
technology and its use, and I do feel lucky to have lived so long in a place
that was not dependent on it. I learned
how to live with fewer choices and only the basic necessities, and I discovered
that the limitations of island life were actually MORE THAN ENOUGH. I didn’t need all the things I had
previously, and I think it’s helped me keep this new stateside world I’ve entered
again in perspective, so I don’t become too dependent on technology and other
such luxuries, which I definitely have not done yet. In fact, I still get
overwhelmed with all the choices in the grocery store. I prefer to go to stores
that are smaller and not so busy because it’s too much to be bumping into
people I don’t know on every aisle, especially when I can’t find what I need
(which seems to be all the time). It was easy on the island with one grocery
store and one brand of each grocery item. I didn’t have to choose. It was already done for me. Coming back to the states is like entering
adulthood again…all that independence all at once when I had been “told” what I
could and couldn’t do all those years. I
guess you might call it culture shock.
Yes, definitely culture shock! And technology has been part of that
shock factor…
Technology
has also been nice for me with things like Facebook. As much as I hate to admit
it, I love how Facebook has reunited me with old friends I grew up with as well
as kept me close to island friends, wherever they go in the world. So, technology
is my best thing since sliced bread because it’s the one thing that has changed
so DRASTICALLY since I left my life in the U.S. in the late nineties, and it’s brought
me closer to the world immediately around me (helping me to get to know my new home
state) and last, but not least, it’s kept me closer to all my family and friends
far, far away! Love you all!! Thanks for being a part of my face-to-face and
online life! J
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