Technology

Since getting to Guatemala, it has become evident how much a laptop and the Internet has changed the average Peace Corps volunteer’s life and ability to keep in touch with those stateside and everywhere else in the world. It was during Christmas vacation in the states that I realized how dependent we are on technology. I remember seeing people out at a bar or in a restaurant sitting together but not talking. They were all so preoccupied with their iphones and Blackberry’s to be hassled with man’s most basic mode of communication. It was so shocking to see and even more evident to me as I didn’t have a phone, or means of mobile communication, for the 12 days that I was in the US over Christmas break. When my father was a PCV in Bolivia during the early 70’s, he would record himself on cassettes and then mail them all the way up to Belmont, Massachusetts so my grandmother could hear about his travels. I still haven’t heard the cassettes, as he’s currently in the process of converting them into MP3’s so they can be sent over email, but I look forward to hearing about how Bolivia and Latin America was forty years ago. Although, I have the sneaking suspicion that Bolivia, a poor indigenous mountainous land like Guatemala, will sound very similar to my current experiences as progress and development in this region of the world, especially in the rural areas, almost moves so slow, at times, it seems like it’s going backwards.

Getting back to the point I was trying to make, the Internet, no matter how slow the connection is, and the ability to access Facebook and Gmail have made staying in contact with friends and family much easier. Just this past week, I was able to catch up with a lifelong friend who is currently living with her husband in Holland. I also got the chance to talk with a bunch of guys that I graduated high school with in 05’. Speaking of high school, I’ve also been keeping up with a good friend of mine from Andover, MA who I met on study abroad in Buenos Aires. She’s currently dating a guy I graduated with from the Prep (high school) and so the world gets smaller once again. The world truly is a small place and getting smaller every day as more and more people join social networks like Facebook and have access to the Internet and email. According to the world factbook only about 20% of the population of Guatemala are considered “Internet users” and with 50% of the population being under the age of 18, it’s no wonder that people over the age of 25 here have problems with simple google searches, email related issues, etc. Frank, my site mate, has often said that the only difference between the “1^st” and the “3^rd” world is peoples’ ability to access information. So, I think it’s safe to say that those with technology are at a far greater advantage to access information.

I thought that talking about technology in the “3^rd” world would be timely as it seems the US or the “1^st” world is advancing at an alarming pace. It was only yesterday that I was reading an article about how students in more than 600 school districts across the US will now use Ipads instead of textbooks. This was shocking, especially because there are many places in the world where there isn’t enough funding or interest in education to even supply students with basic reading material. If textbooks are even becoming obsolete, then we truly are going to be a world surviving on the next new piece of technology. In just the past year, physical mail has gone down 22% due to online bill paying and email. Post offices around the country are having to lay off postal workers due to this reduction of snail mail. I wonder one day if the idea of a mail man or woman will appear as foreign to my children as the milk man has always seemed to me.

I often wonder how we, in the United States, would survive without all of our technology. I remember feeling lost on those days when I would forget my cell phone in my dorm room or in my car. I felt as though I couldn’t do without it. I’m sure many of you reading this right now have had a similar experience when you’ve realized that you’ve left your phone at home only after arriving at the mall, restaurant, or other destination. Personally, I believe that this will be , and for many Peace Corp Volunteers, one of the hardest things to get use to once back at home. Our dependence on technology is so that we are slowly doing away with textbooks, age-old government jobs, and even good old bar time conversation. I worry about the world that we’re moving towards. However, I find comfort in John Candy’s words from the Disney thriller Cool Runnings. When his character was asked whether cheating to win the gold medals was the right thing to do, he answers simply that “ If you’re nothing without them (referring to the gold medals in this context) than you’ll never be anything with them”. I just hope that it doesn’t take our metaphorical bobsled to breakdown in turn 9 for us to realize what we have.

Candy’s words can be applied to a lot more than just putting weights in the front of a bobsled to win gold medals. Yet, as our dependence and love of electronics, PDA’s, and technology is probably not going to ever diminish, so shall we become more informed and, according to Frank, more “1^st” world. As we become more “1^st” world, I fear that we’ll continue to loose touch with what is truly important in life and countries like Guatemala will only become more “3^rd” world as their access to technology and lack of resources will leave them falling farther and farther behind. If Frank’s definition of what divides the “1^st” from the “3^rd” world is at all correct than I worry for those in less developing areas of the world.