I’m old enough
to remember life without internet social media, but I guess the change has been
so gradual that I didn’t notice the extent to which it has consumed my life.
They say
that every once and awhile it is good to get yourself “off the grid”, in order
to connect with family and immediate surroundings, but I always thought this was
intended for people who had some sort of problem with checking their phone too
often, or some other psychological or social relation issue. I never thought it
applied to me.
Our family
had stayed in the Shanghai New Harbour hotel in central Shanghai over 5 years ago, and
we returned to it this trip not only for convenience and familiarity, but also
for nostalgia. In every way but one, we
were very pleased with our little home away from home over the Christmas
holidays. The only one complaint I had
was the difficulty with the internet.
I have known WIFI
connections in China to be slow, especially because all the information and
servers are located on the other side of the planet. In addition, the
connection would be slower because of my VPN access (which was necessary to
break through the Great FireWall of China).
But this time in our apartment, the connection back home via WIFI was agonizingly
slow and my VPN access on my laptop was nearly impossible. I had actually better luck connecting to the
internet via smartphone cell tower, although I had not set this up for VPN access, and had not set myself up with an extensive data plan.
After the
first day, I found that I had spent several hours battling the WIFI internet connection. I grew tired and weary, which was exacerbated
by jet lag. I realized I needed to stop wasting further precious time, and just
create memories, and relay my experiences later.
What an incredibly
liberating experience that was.
The people I
really needed to connect to were with me on the trip. I found so much of my mental energy and focus
were freed up when I did not check Facebook frequently. I sent short emails and messages to family
and close friends, relaying important information and status updates. I found my blood pressure lowering, not
having to scroll through political gripes, and blast
non-connective sharing of information not intended for me.
I appreciate
that there is a time and place for Facebook, and for other social media
connection. But I also realize that it is a filtered lens through which I
associate with others, and that this is not always healthy for me, and not how I wish to truly connect with friends. How different the world must appear to people
of a younger generation, who have only known this form of communication as a
means to associate with friends.
In any
event, I am able to see now how my trips to China have changed over just 10
short years, in how I report to the people interested in what I am doing. At first, a blog with photos was a bit of a
novelty, and was written much after the fact, summarizing the overall
experience. I spent countless hours
after the trip compiling and editing video, and sending out DVDs to families
summarizing my trip.
Later, I
found that posting a blog with links to YouTube was much more convenient and
time saving for me, and I was able to post much more quickly after the event.
And within
the last 2 years, I found that posting online to Facebook was quicker still,
and I had good feedback when posting thoughts and photos in near real-time.
I have
found, however, that something has been missing in those recent years, which is
the element of historical perspective and analysis. I need to check with Emma as to how the
younger generation analyze history, and develop perspective, in an age where
everything is posted and disseminated “in the present”, and archival records
are not well kept (or are not meant to be kept).
So in this
short blog, I will revert to my original format, which is to report on my short
visit to the Bengbu orphanage, and especially to report my observations of a
young woman, born in Bengbu, and returning there for the first time in nearly
19 years.
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