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After Thoughts 2005

Probing America: High Tech on Back Roads

After Thoughts, 2005

Thirteen years after completing "Probing America: High Tech on Back Roads," it has been enjoyable this summer of 2005 to re-read our emails and view pictures and reminisces with some who made the trip with us. The Ford Probe's back seat was small but the Meg community was able to squeeze in. Not so today. Many of us have stacks of addresses in our address book (or is it books) and maintain several aliases (why can't they simply be called mailing lists?) and the Internet technology has grown so much that its 1992 ancestor is hardly recognizable. What seems most important, in looking back, is the experience of being part of the early days of electronic mail. It is still a powerful concept that can enrich communication and those who participate are for the most part better off for it.

Certainly, there were and continue to be problems. Email etiquette, learning how to be precise as well deciding how much of prior messages should be deleted, and developing file management skills are still a challenge to many of us. Gone are the days of hard copy manuals from hardware and software manufacturers, replaced with built in help files and a multitude of handbooks from independent writers.

Dial up began as magic and ended as a pain in the butt; connect delay time of as much as 5 or 10 seconds with high speed systems can be a source of considerable frustration today. Security protection even for garden variety users is a must and costs of machines continue to decrease. We eagerly acquired blog addresses this year, but to our surprise have since hardily touched them. We also experimented with inexpensive video cameras several years ago, but did not find that they contributed to the quality of email communication. Besides, few people had them at the time. Perhaps that has changed. If I (Jack)could have one improvement it would be a faster spell checker/thesaurus. I enjoy writing more when I have very quick access to both but am frustrated with the slow speed of my "manual" system or the cumbersome built in programs. Even though we do not acquire many new programs or equipment, it is interesting to monitor the state of the art developments. The one observation I (Theresa) would like to make is that all the people that were on the email alias of 1992 are still friends. All of their lives have moved on, but through email they are still friends and their everyday lives are shared with us. That is our definition of The New Village.

We continue to feel at home in the West, the Columbia Gorge has not changed much, the Oregon Trail is still with us in spirit, the Pacific Ocean rolls in and out on schedule, the Internet adds immeasurably to our quality of life and our world wide network of interesting friends continues to expand thanks to the Net. One could truthfully say that life without the net in general and email specifically would not be nearly as satisfying. Wonder what the next decade will bring.