Each country across the globe is populated with diversity. Communities began to change as communications evolved. The talking wires and the iron horse opened communication between cities and towns across America. Telephones and then radios eventually were used in households across the nation. The television was invented and the first computers changed the way people received their information. Growing up as a child in the 1960’s, I spent a great deal of time writing letters and waiting for the mailman every day to bring me some surprise in the mail. I waited for him every day during summer. A great deal of my time as a young teen was spent on my genealogy hobby and many letters were written. I also had 14 pen pals across the globe during my teen years.  I am so amazed each day that I now have access to the internet and I can receive mail 20 times per day if I wish. The internet has changed the world forever and how we are able to retrieve information at our fingertips with the click of a mouse. The world has changed for all of us dramatically. I believe that the internet is the most significant revolutionary change that has changed the lives of all globally. It is comparable to the way flight, and the transcontinental railroad, electricity and radio and telephones changed life at the turn of the last century. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, people across the globe received information basically the same way, very slow. The newspaper had articles which covered some local, some state and national and a great deal of international news as well. Today, though we are on information overload sometimes, it is a very exciting time to be alive.
                     The personal computer in nearly every household has made it possible for people with disabilities to start their own business, to no longer be isolated within their own community. The elderly have access to the outside world, and need not be isolated in the cold winter months anymore. The personal computer has changed life. 
                     I often think of the comparisons between the way we send correspondence years ago and today. For instance, I am in possession of photocopies of letters written in the 1860’s from a father in Ireland to his son, in Whitneyville, Maine. I am not sure most people realize the troubles our ancestors faced when the lived in the Old Country. These letters are quite revealing as the father in Ireland had nothing for assets but a small cow and the home he lived in with little. He was very sick. He asked his son to please send him some money. The son became quite prosperous and dutifully sent his father money. The father always thanked his son and told him he had walked for two days across the rugged terrain to Killarney to cash the bank draft. I am sure the condition of these roads has not changed in many years. As he was near his death, he wrote once more to ask for money to help pay for his wake and burial and he had arranged for a longtime friend to loan him the money in good faith. The friend paid for the wake and burial. Many families lost all their children to America. This father had five children and all were in America stretched from coast to coast. Today nearly 150 years later I was able to send transcriptions of those letters to a library near the hometown by internet. How amazing.
                    I have read a few letters from a relative who was a soldier in World War 2 who wrote to his family often and ended each letter with, “Do not worry about me. If you should need anything, please contact the Red Cross” He told of the horrific things he had seen and was unsettled how things were going on with his family at home. He often wrote that he worried about home when he received no mail.
                     My own husband served in both Navy and Army. Our first year of marriage, I saw him 38 days. This was 1985. There was no internet then but we did have telephone. He would call me often when he was stateside, however when he was deployed, I often worried for his safety. He wasn't the best correspondent but I made sure I wrote and numbered each letter on the envelope for him to read in order. I wrote every single evening as it helped me to pass time when he was away. When he went to Kuwait after the war to clean up ordinance, I was also worried. The news would be on 24/7 and I could not watch it. It was too much information and often misleading. Now with the internet, communication for military families is superior. You can see your loved ones on camera and talk with them. They can be with you anytime almost. Yet, it causes great stress because the television, internet, and newspapers are full of 24/7 information. This technology could possibly bring more anxiety at times. My point is that with the intervention of technology, we are no better off than we were before technology in some ways because that element of uncertainty is still there.
                    My brother told me a story of a man who bought a time saving device but had to work two jobs to pay for it. Of course it was a story but things have come full circle when that is happening. My son told me, “Hey Mom, what if you go to work and you have to work longer to pay for your way back home?” I thought that was an interesting statement, due to the costs of fuel now. It is a complex world we all share.
Regarding communications and the internet, I recently submitted ideas to Google for their 10th anniversary, the main reason I have been absent for awhile. I am sure Google was overloaded with thousands of ideas and I wanted to be one of those who contributed. Anyhow, it is good to be back to writing. I have a list of stories to post.