My experience living simply

This past summer, I spent one month living and working on an organic farm just outside of Granada, Spain. I lived with very limited technology, and I loved every moment of it. I went through a program called World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or WWOOF for short. In exchange of working on their organic farm for 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, the farm managers provide you with free room and board. This particular farm was high up in the Sierra Nevadas and very isolated. On a typical day, we woke up very early to cultivate crops, make and eat lunch together, and then go back to work until mid afternoon. We then had free time to do anything ranging from mountain biking, hiking, running, rock climbing, swimming in the lake, kayaking, and star gazing until a late dinner meal that was also eaten all together. The only means of electricity was a generator that they used very sparingly. It was put on for only a few hours every night to watch a movie together or to use a specific appliance after a work day.  This meant that they didn’t have the resources to have a refrigerator and we ate mostly vegetarian meals using crops we grew. We composted all of our food scraps and reused and recycled most and produced very little waste. Their carbon footprint is completely neutral and their lives are completely happy. We had no access to the internet and had to drive or walk to the nearest small town for service to make phone calls, or to pay for a computer at an internet café.

            I would say that I am normally very connected to the internet and social networking, as well as texting multiple people at once. But as soon as I stepped foot on the farm, I felt I was completely in my element. I do all those activities they had to offer during my spare time normally, in between my busy schedule of school and work. I never felt like I wanted to check my facebook page, nor had a desire to see what other people were up to. I was very happy living that lifestyle, and kept in touch with my family and a few friends every couple of days via a phone call. I had so many lovely distractions around me, and I love working there that I almost completely forgot about technology.

            The next month, I stayed on another farm in Italy. It was more of an ecotourism business, for they had a large organic farm, a restaurant and a bed and breakfast like type of establishment. Because they accommodated guests, they also offered wireless internet.  As soon as I had this as an option again, I found myself desiring to browse the web, mostly facebook to see what my friends back home were up to. Though I never carried my iphone around with me while I was working or when I was with my host family, I often used it during my downtime or before I slept in my room. I was excited to be in touch with my friends and family back home and was constantly catching up with them. I realized that when I didn’t have the option of internet access I was completely content without it. But now that I had the choice, I opted for staying connected.

            It made me reflect on my use of the internet. I became more aware of how often I used it to stay connected with people. I felt as if since I was capable of starting a conversation with someone halfway across the world, I should. When I was still in Spain, I had no problem waiting to call someone I really cared about. I thought about how I can be more patient and remember that constant internet access is indeed a luxury, not a necessity. 

Technology and Social Interaction

            Throughout the years, technology has significantly changed how people communicate with each other. Mobile phones made people more connected with each other and positively enhanced the communication realm. It even created a safer environment. If people were to get lost or stuck on the side of the road, it was much easier to contact someone for help.

            Since the inception of cellular devices, however, hand held mobile phones became much more prevalent and have become much more complicated. Cell phones are no longer a device to just make phone calls; we could now send text messages and smart phones can connect us to social networking as well as applications like FaceTime. Because of all the fancy new additions to a mobile device, I think face to face interaction has decreased. Though because of technologies like FaceTime and Skype, I think a more accurate way to describe the effect of technology on communication as less personal. People used to have to talk on the phone to communicate with someone not present, but now we don’t even have to hear their voice to have a full conversation with them. Though it may be less personal than a face to face conversation, I feel as if I am connected with a lot more people so much easier. For example, I often keep in touch with my high school friends via social networking and texting, even though we are all in different colleges.

            I do think that people can become dependent on the lack of in person communication and may feel uncomfortable in direct meetings. I believe this is a skill we must not lose, and learn to take advantage of new technology without becoming dependent on them.

            I feel as if some people take this to the next level and completely disregard reality for their internet life. We saw some examples in class of how people can become obsessed with their internet alter ego and give up their real life. I think that some methods of using technology to create relationships are more dangerous and addicting than others. It seems as if online matching sites have proven to be successful, especially because they encourage in person meetings after being matched up. Online gaming and virtual worlds seems to be extremely impersonal and very easy to get caught up in a separate virtual life. It is one thing to play with your friends, which is still in my opinion impersonal interaction, but it seems really strange to make friends with an avatar and create relationships. I feel as if living a double life could be really distracting and unhealthy.

            However, I do believe we need to embrace technology and where it is taking us. We need to use it to our advantage, like how politicians use facebook and twitter to help with their campaign, or how twitter can spread news. We need to venture from creating false realities that are an escape from real life, and turn towards establishing a healthy method to integrate technology into our lives. 

Social Networking and Privacy

The prevalence and rapid growth of social media networks has been extremely obvious throughout the most recent years and has personally altered my life. I remember the first time I heard about facebook through my older brother. He was recently accepted to UC Santa Cruz and created a facebook page to get in touch with his future classmates. I was a freshman in high school when he shared his page with me. I was fascinated with the idea that you could “meet” your classmates and make friends before even moving in to the university dorms. I was interested in creating my own profile, but he explained to me that you need a valid school e-mail to be a part of it. The exclusivity of it intrigued me even more! As soon as this particular social media was available to me, I became a part of it. It was new and exciting for me because I never fully gotten into the previous MySpace trend. I found myself using it as one of my main methods of contacting people. It is even easier now with the facebook chat application. I feel as if the recent social media updates have made people really anxious to always stay connected. We know when people are standing in front of their computer or on their phones and expect them to be available when they are noted as being online.            

            Besides knowing a users online status, we often have access to other permanent information like their phone number or exact location. The idea of knowing more about a person can make the social network more drawing. I opened a twitter account during the beginning of this school year and have recently been using it quite frequently. I love the idea of following my favorite celebrities and reading their thoughts or seeing pictures or articles they posted. Having a smart phone has led me to check my social media much more often. In fact, I hardly ever see a notification on my computer first hand- the news feed is connected to my phone. I do often feel like people over share what they are thinking on social networking sites and often do so for attention. We have the responsibility and control to share how much information we want people to know, and I think that some users feel a more personal connection to the internet when they lack a human connection.

            I have never been too worried about my privacy on social networks because I make a conscious effort to remember what the purpose of the site is. I know that everything on there is very public and I take full advantage of all the options to make my page more private. At the same time, I would never post or share something that I felt was very personal. In fact, I notice that my friends count on my facebook account is pretty high. I find myself deleting “friends” if I in fact do not know that person in reality. I find this to be more comforting when I’m only in closer touch with friends and associates that I know more personally. 

Living without cable

Living without cable blog

I live in a small house right on the corner of Alviso and Bellomy with 2 other housemates. All of us are the best of friends and are in very similar financial situations. All of us generate our own income with part time jobs and use that money to pay our rent, utilities, and groceries. In my personal situation, my parents pay my tuition fully, which of course takes a tremendous worry off my back. They value a strong work ethic, and told me that I would be taking care of these expenses when I moved off campus. Though they are willing to help me in an emergency or when I am really low on cash, they for the most part stay out of my expenses. 

Since the three of us are on our own in terms of expenses other than tuition for various reasons, we often cut back on certain things to save money. During the beginning of this year, we all made the executive decision to cancel our Comcast account. After they raised the price numerous times, we decided it was no longer in our budget. We opted for a cheaper internet service and decided to forgo subscribing to any other cable service. In the end, we hardly watched too much tv sitcoms anyways. My housemates often watched Bravo shows like Real Housewives or Keeping up with the Kardashians, and I solely watched ESPN and sporting events, with the occasional food network in the background. Or at least that was our initially reasoning. Turns out, we all really miss the tv. One of my roommates can go to her boyfriends house all day and watch anything there. I find myself at friends house more often to watch sporting events, which is always fun. I do miss lounging on my couch, doing homework at the same time while a game is on in the background. Though we never really watched much tv before, we enjoyed at least having that option. Or if we had people over, it was nice to always through something on do give us something to do together. And I must admit, we did enjoy the occasional TV series that we would go out of our way to watch together.

Now a days, I find ourselves in front of our laptop together when we all gather in the living room. It is as if we still need some distraction, even though we are still being 100% social and talking to each other. We also started playing more games together in our living room. Just the other night, some of our friends just stayed up talking all night. So really, I feel like it has indeed made a change for the good. It encourages us to not have a lazy afternoon and perhaps go to a friends house instead, or invite company over. We can always get around not having cable, for many shows are streamed online anyways. I think having cable is really convenient, yet it shouldn’t be considered a necessity by anymeans. I wonder how other students would deal with no cable in their college house.