Reconnecting

I tend to be a late adopter when it comes to technology. Except for photo stuff, I am an old-school, pen-and-paper kind of person. My old iPod would be an embarrassment to most people, not to mention my cell phone... That's why I entered the web 2.0 very tentatively. Yes, I was blogging. But I was of the opinion that myspace, facebook and all networking sites were just teenagers' pastimes.

That's why, when I was in Buenos Aires this past Christmas and checked e-mail at my Dad's prehistoric computer (yes, it runs in the family), I was very surprised to find my inbox full with invitations from several friends EVEN OLDER than me to join facebook.

I ignored them for a while, until in early January, once back in Japan, curiosity prevailed over prejudice and I signed up just to see what my friends were raving about. I explored it for about an hour and gave up, still wondering what my friends saw in it. I forgot all about it for months, until yet another friend bugged me because I had not yet accepted her facebook "friendship request". And that's when it happened: I started searching for old friends. And from facebook I moved to linkedin, and from there to google... and I discovered that lots of people I had lost track of for at least a decade were all there, available at my fingertips and just an e-mail or "friendship request" away.

Perhaps living so far away from most of my people makes me more prone to feeling isolation. But being able to reconnect has been a thrill (and borders on addiction now!). In the past few months, I've found my two closest friends from high school after 18 years of separation. That alone is worth celebrating web 2.0!

Kumar still keeps his distance and only explores facebook over my shoulder. But, while I was at it, he suggested that I look up his nieces (the eldest a freshman in Philadelphia) and spent a good 15 minutes looking through her school pictures... He may not yet be a convert, but he's on his way...