What does technology mean to me? When I began my internship at Breakaway Communications nine weeks ago, I remember contemplating this exact question and realizing that since the start of 2009, technology has meant everything to my life. It has kept me connected, informed, aware and at times, even alive. Without trying to sound overdone or melodramatic, I will attempt to explain the interesting relationship that I have recently formed with technology.
Culture Shock
If I could describe my life over the past six months, it would certainly begin with the term culture shock. In the last 180 days, I haven’t been in my original hometown of Philadelphia for more than 24 hours, and my perspective on the world has shifted 180 degrees.
My culture shock officially began on January 3, 2009, when I anxiously, yet eagerly, boarded Continental Airlines Flight 126 to Dublin. I had decided to study abroad in Ireland for the semester and up until that day I had never actually been away from home for more than a month or two. My experiences outside the country were limited to Canada and the Caribbean, two places I considered foreign simply because they required a passport, and the only language I had ever studied was Latin, which hadn’t been officially spoken since 400 A.D. Looking back, it was inevitable I was bound for culture shock.
Fortunately, I had chosen to study abroad in a country whose citizens’ spoke English (at least when they were outside the pub), which meant the issue of a language barrier had been eliminated. Moreover, Ireland had the comfort and convenience of modern American technology, something that many other European countries seemed to lack. Most people aren’t aware, but Ireland has benefited tremendously from its membership in the European Union. Over the last decade in particular, the EU has pumped more than $55 billion into Ireland for the purpose of creating employment, increasing trade, as well as improving the country’s transportation, communication and technology networks. As a result, unlike most of my friends who studied abroad in other European countries, my university had a media center that actually included computers (with wireless!), and the term “card catalogue” didn’t literally mean a catalogue of handwritten cards.
Technology in Irish Terms
Despite the huge transformation that has taken place in Ireland, I eventually realized that the effects of EU funding were strictly limited to the major cities, such as Dublin, Cork and Galway. In fact, many of the small towns located outside these urban areas (if 60,000 people can even be considered urban) didn’t receive the same degree of financial support and as a result, the level of technology in these areas was significantly less modernized than that of the city centers. I found that the Irish people residing in these outskirt towns were more concerned with the local pub life than the latest iPod application or newest operating system. Their discussions revolved around family traditions, local Rugby teams and the weather – a conversation that inevitably ended up being about rain. If technology was addressed, it was in reference to the trendiest milk tank, not the most recent IT merger or Twitter controversy. Their concept of social networking took place in the flesh, and the relationships they built didn’t start from behind a computer screen. The Irish were personable in the truest sense and their openness to foreigners continues to fascinate me.
In addition to their simplicity, I admired the Irish for their easygoing approach to life. They prioritized things according to physical urgency and if no one was dying or in immediate danger, there was no need to get uptight. If class was scheduled at 8 a.m., it really meant 8:05 a.m., or maybe even 8:10 a.m. In Ireland it seemed that there were no technicalities. Thus, it came as little surprise when we were given the entire month of April off to study for finals. Coming from an American university where we are given one or two days to study before our exams, the fact that it was suggested that Irish students took an entire month to study was certainly a foreign concept. Either way, the long break worked to my advantage by allowing me to fully prepare for my exams, while also giving me the opportunity to travel throughout Europe.
Thirty Days and One Pair of Shorts
For thirty days I lived out of a backpack, wearing the same pair of shorts, shoes, and same four shirts. Despite the fact that I smelled rather strange and was seriously delirious from sleep deprivation, it was during that time that I really began to recognize the advantages of modern technology. Programs like Skype allowed me to communicate with my family via webcam. Social media networks like Facebook gave me the opportunity to update friends, and my digital camera let me capture the memories. There were many times that technology rescued me from potentially precarious situations, such as helping me rebook a ticket after I had missed a flight in Barcelona or using the GPS service on my iPhone to locate my hostel in Budapest. Even though I felt extremely disconnected from my life in America, it was technology that helped me feel connected. Knowing that I had the advantage of something like the Internet was comforting and reassuring. On many occasions, while waiting in foreign train stations, bus terminals and airport gates, my friends and I would marvel at those who studied abroad during the decades before us. It’s strange to think that as little as ten years ago, Facebook notifications were postcards and the original Skype was a payphone. When people went abroad, they truly separated themselves from everything familiar.
Eventually my experience abroad came to an end and it was time to be reconnected with the real world. I finished my exams, packed my belongings, and boarded a flight back to America. Life was no longer going to be foreign…at least at the time that’s what I thought.
Home Sweet…What’s Going On?
Culture shock….again. I had only been at home in Philadelphia for 36 hours when I moved to New York City, a place as foreign as the Czech Republic. It may be surprising, but my decision to move to New York right away was completely voluntary; the thought of working as a summer intern was overwhelming and I was excited to try something totally new. Believe me, new was an understatement when it comes to describing my last nine weeks. I went from living in a town with less than 75,000 people and one bus route to living in a city with more than 8 million people and over 26 subway lines. I went from drinking freshly brewed Guinness to drinking Starbucks double mocha lattes and from regularly walking by sheep herds to being trampled by rush-hour hoards. In Ireland the tallest building was 12 stories, the same height as the office building I work in now. Life had definitely changed.
Even my experience at Breakaway has been a culture shock in some ways. The world of technology was something that was relatively foreign to me before I started this internship. Sure, I had been aware of the major tech companies like Google, Amazon and Apple. I was familiar with Internet service providers and the idea of pay TV, but in all honesty, before Breakaway, the concepts of cloud computing, conditional access and API’s were as recognizable to me as a dinner menu in Bratislava. Terms like virtualization sounded like something out of Back to the Future and the idea of middleware reminded me of something I would put in a pantry cabinet, not a set-top-box.
Nevertheless, like my experience abroad, I have been able to use the Internet to understand these foreign concepts. Technology has made it easy to investigate these topics, and now, nine weeks later, I can say with confidence that I feel secure. Just as it did during my experience abroad, technology has allowed me to evolve and grow without feeling disconnected. I may only be a hundred miles away from my hometown, but it feels like another world, and yet, technology has allowed me to stay in touch. Looking back, my life has definitely changed since the start of 2009. In all honesty, I can’t decide if I’ve been more shocked by the cultures I’ve encountered or by the technology I’ve experienced within those cultures; either way, one thing’s for certain, as soon as I find out, I’ll be sure to include it in my next tweet.
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