Reconnecting and the "Global Community"
By: Caitlin FitzGerald
Today I received an unexpected
message on Facebook from an old friend that I had lost all contact with. Two
summers ago I spent 6 weeks in Tanzania working at a local school, and Erique
was one of the students my age that I befriended there. Of course when I left I
fully expected that I would never hear from him again, but there he was in my Facebook
inbox today.
Erique is a currently a student at
a University in Tanzania and in many ways he is no different from you and I. He
likes to hang out with friends, he as a girlfriend, and he is in the process of
figuring out what he wants to do with his life after he graduates. What is
different is his culture, and the fact that where he comes
from, it is very rare for someone to have access to a computer. Only due to the
fact that he has a scholarship for college where he is studying computer science (a fairly new major
there according to him) is he able to even have a Facebook account.
This made me think about McLuhan’s
idea of a modern communication technology creating a global village, as well as
Symes critique of this idea. It is unbelievable that I could maintain a
connection with someone so far away and from different culture as mine, but today’s
communication technology can allow for it. I do also have to agree with Symes
however, not everyone has equal access to this technology. I know this first
hand because while I have been able to reconnect with Erique, I have countless
others friends there who I will most likely never hear from again.
Amazing story Caitlin and thanks for the pic. I sometimes take for granted the ease of access I have to Internet and computers. Living in the bay area we have a skewed perception of how common these luxuries are.
ReplyDeleteCaitlin - first of all this sounds like it was an amazing experience that you will remember forever! I also just wanted to say that it is sad that not everyone has access to a computer or a way of communicating like you and I do. Just like Karen said, I never think about how lucky I am to have all of the electronics and ways of communication I have been given. I just think of having a laptop or phone as the norm, when in some places it isn't. For me, that was a huge flaw in McLuhan's argument.
ReplyDelete