Technology

I was just reading a post by Joanna at Writing From Merida about how we used to send Christmas cards each year, and it sparked a notion of how much our lives have been affected by the rapidly changing technology that surrounds us every day. Don’t mistake me, I am not complaining. I love the fact that no matter where I am, I am able to be in constant contact with the people most important to me.

Last night I chatted with a friend from Vancouver for about an hour and we were using my Vonage line so we aren’t even charged long distance as it is a Vancouver number. The connection was such that she could have been right down the street rather than in another country. My friend is hoping to make a last minute trip to visit us here in San Miguel and as we chatted we both sat in front of our computers checking airline flights and prices.

Obviously this is nothing out of the ordinary, but were my grandmother alive today, I suspect she would disagree. As a young woman my grandmother, Mabel, walked from the Peace River Country to Vancouver, alongside a covered wagon. She carried a rifle under one arm, a baby under the other, and I’ll bet she would have loved to have stepped onto an airplane. This was about 1915. Less that one hundred years ago. (and about a year before the railroad made it to the Peace River Country)







Mabel was a strong women who took things in stride. The matriarch of our family, little phased her, and in her lifetime she watched as electricity became available to everyone, automobiles replaced horses, the Wright brothers put us in the air and man landed on the moon. However, I think even Mabel would have marveled at the leaps and bounds technology has made since her passing.

All of these wondrous inventions have made our lives easier and changed them forever. There is no turning back, not that we would want to, but I think we may have lost something along the way. Prior to the Laptop, iPad and iPhone, kids played outside and used their minds to create games. Without the media they remained kids longer. Adults went for a walk after dinner, chatted about their respective day and speculated about their futures. A date might have included a drive-in restaurant and a porch swing. Dreams somehow, seemed grander. Maybe we’ve become a little jaded.







I am an avid reader and I LOVE my Kindle, but that does not mean I don’t appreciate the warm feeling I get from a comfortable chair in a book lined den. The presence of the books are as important to the whole as the comfortable chair and the fireplace. It’s so easy to send a greeting card over the internet and I know from having received many that the feeling of gratitude for being remembered is the same as if I held it in my hand. But there is still something about that mantle from my past, lined with lights, garlands and Christmas cards……..