This past Friday I headed into NYC with my girlfriend Diva to see a Rick Springfiled concert. We had a great time in general, concert was so-so, he was sick and did all old songs (I prefer his newer stuff – SDAA is my FAVORITE album). We drank way too much, good thing we were there overnight.
Since my husband was leaving Saturday morning on a trip and I wouldn’t be home in time, we passed off kidlette to a friends house in the interm. In an effort to get home at a decent time, I decided to take a shorter route home (turned out not to be quicker) – which lead me right through the heart of the area I grew up in. I have no reason to drive through my hometown any longer, my grandmother sold her house a few years back and now lives with my mom.
I wish I had a recorder on me as I was driving through, I can’t get over how fast the thoughts were coming in my head. So many new buildings, shopping malls, widened highways. Remembering taking night drives through Dukes Estates looking for the Pig Lady. Buildings that were new when I was in high school looking settled in and out of place next to the new mega-malls and cookie cutter stores. Thinking MY GOD had I ever thought that I would be in the place I am now in my life? Shit, do I even REMEMBER what I wanted to “be” when I grew up? Whatever it was, I’m not it. Because what I do did not even exist then. But at my core I still feel true to myself, I am WHO I wanted to be. Big difference.
How does it all happen? Being removed from the area for some 15 years, but still only living 45 minutes away, how does it change and no one notice? I have friends that still live in the town I grew up in, some still living in their parents house (and parents in a 55+ community). Do they see the change? When I ask, it’s ‘same old – same old’ BUT IT’S NOT.
How do things like this creep up in your life and you just don’t see it? Same with techology. It creeps in, slowly, and then all the sudden you cannot see a time without it. Your life feels the same but it’s not. Those that don’t partake in the tech onslaught (such as my mom, she barely uses personal email) take a peek in from time to time and don’t get it. As her generation, or hell MY generation passes, everyone will be used to the new landscape. Right now I’m reading/hearing that email is for old people. I mean, come on, who even faxes anymore, right? Same thing. Whatever the case, I hope for the sake of humankind that just because the landscape changes, WE don’t. Does the technology you use make you a different person? A better person? I suppose if it changes you for the better, it’s okay, but I think that it’s in you anyway. Does blogging/podcasting/SL make me a better person? No. Does it change who I am? No. Does it change WHAT I am? Hell yeah.
What I worry about more, now, is not that in the 8 years we’ve lived here a new mall has popped up in the next town over, but how the technology will affect my daughter’s life. Will she look back, driving through her hometown, and not notice the new buildings, houses, or whatever…but be more affected by the technology? Mom, PLEASE… Second Life is SOOO for old people.
