Memories of the Past as I Look into the Future

It's been a few weeks since I last wrote. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts on Michael Jackson, Personal Sustainability, and Journal Writing. It seems that the energy from Michael Jackson's passing is starting to shift and change is in the air! Now our focus has moved onto Harry Potter the movie and the latest celebrity passing of Walter Cronkite. This time a media icon. Reminding us all of the importance of media over the past 60 years! I remember Walter Cronkite from the days when I was a kid growing up watching the news with my parents. His voice will always live on in my memory. I was born a little too late to hear him announce the assassination of JFK or that the USA had successfully landed a man on the moon, but I will remember his contribution to media and appreciate his courage and willingness to be the man he was.

As I have been watching the trending topics on twitter, the topic I have been thinking about for the past few weeks is how much life has shifted and what it is like to live in this modern world. I just watched a movie trailer for a film about the closing of Paperbook bookstores. Another fond memory for me is bookstores! Oh how I used to love to read books! I moved to Berkeley, CA in the early 90's and my favorite pastime was late night cafes and bookstores. Soon after when I moved to San Francisco, I found myself quite often in the Green Apple bookstore walking out each time with a new stack of books.

Until six years ago I didn't even have a cell phone. I was borrowing a desktop computer and I lived without a laptop. Fast forward to today......I have an iphone, Mac laptop, and run an internet company! Who would have ever guessed. I remember back to the debates I had with my brother for years over technology and whether or not it is bettering humankind. Today we talk about it as equals and teach each other every time we learn something new.

I am amazed everyday how much a role technology plays in our lives and how much it is contributing. The biggest thing it has done for me is bring me closer to my family. I have been living in CA for the past 17 years. My relationship with my family has been up until now a plane ride once a year to see them in NY and phone calls every few weeks. There were distant family members that I barely had a relationship with at all. Now with the use of video skype and facebook I have more and more interaction with them. My 81 year old grandmother video skypes me everyday to say hello. It is so wonderful to "see" her everyday. My dad read my blog and said "It's interesting how little we know about our children sometimes. Probably better that way. But what can be shared is really precious."

When I was a kid, I had a book that showed people doing careers "Of the Future". I will never forget that book. It showed a picture of a woman at a desktop computer with a headset on looking at a picture of someone on the screen. I asked my mom, "What is that?" She told me that the woman was talking to another person with video and that it was not possible to do but probably some day in the future. And here we are today. I think I may have been seeing myself and for some reason that picture remained as a vivid memory. Little did I know it would be how I would communicate with my family 30 years later!

What do the next six years look like? What will the new media landscape look like? How will technology continue to foster change in our lives? How are you using technology and how it is playing a role in your life?