Monday, February 27, 2006
Digital Grandma
I think New Orleans is now one of the most technologically advanced cities in the U.S...you can stop laughing, now...ok fine, get it out of your system and then read the rest of the post.
There is literally NO ONE I know in this city who does not have a cell phone, and I'm talking 8 year olds to 80 year olds. There used to be a contingent of New Orleans residents who strongly resisted all technology that would break the illusion of it not still being the Cold War era - they read paper newspapers, they didn't even own computers, they went to Harry's Ace in their neighborhood if they needed a toilet gasket, drank at Vaughn's in the ninth ward and they walked down to the po-boy shop for lunch.
Now, they can still walk down to the po-boy shop, but all that other stuff is out the window. Half of the city still doesn't have land telephone lines and even more don't have cable, so we have cell phones and we have to hop in the car to drive to a coffee shop (where I am now) if you need to check your email. And you do need to check your email, because many of your previously neighborhood friends are still spread out about the country, once because of evacuating, now because that's where the new job is, and email might be the only way to stay in touch if you don't want to talk to them late at night because of time zones and work. Immediately following the storm, there was no print edition of the Times-Picayune but they continued publishing online, so people bought computers and drove to coffee shops in whatever exotic locale they found themselves in during the evacuation. And they got cell phones, because they couldn't get mail (most people still have to drive to the post office to pick it up), and the answering machine at the house...a little on the blink. FM Radio stations were scarce for a while down here, so people got satellite radio, and new cars because the old ones went to swim with the fishes (no concrete around their hubs, though).
The end product is a modern, shiny, 21st century New Orleanian, pretty much across the board. Even grandma learned how to answer the cell phone instead of looking at it like it's something that might bite her. Crazy flip phones.
There is literally NO ONE I know in this city who does not have a cell phone, and I'm talking 8 year olds to 80 year olds. There used to be a contingent of New Orleans residents who strongly resisted all technology that would break the illusion of it not still being the Cold War era - they read paper newspapers, they didn't even own computers, they went to Harry's Ace in their neighborhood if they needed a toilet gasket, drank at Vaughn's in the ninth ward and they walked down to the po-boy shop for lunch.
Now, they can still walk down to the po-boy shop, but all that other stuff is out the window. Half of the city still doesn't have land telephone lines and even more don't have cable, so we have cell phones and we have to hop in the car to drive to a coffee shop (where I am now) if you need to check your email. And you do need to check your email, because many of your previously neighborhood friends are still spread out about the country, once because of evacuating, now because that's where the new job is, and email might be the only way to stay in touch if you don't want to talk to them late at night because of time zones and work. Immediately following the storm, there was no print edition of the Times-Picayune but they continued publishing online, so people bought computers and drove to coffee shops in whatever exotic locale they found themselves in during the evacuation. And they got cell phones, because they couldn't get mail (most people still have to drive to the post office to pick it up), and the answering machine at the house...a little on the blink. FM Radio stations were scarce for a while down here, so people got satellite radio, and new cars because the old ones went to swim with the fishes (no concrete around their hubs, though).
The end product is a modern, shiny, 21st century New Orleanian, pretty much across the board. Even grandma learned how to answer the cell phone instead of looking at it like it's something that might bite her. Crazy flip phones.
:: posted by Aaron, 11:42 AM
