staying connected, countries apart
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| My mom (right ) with my grandmother (center), her twin/my aunt (left), and her brother/my uncle (in the back) in Costa Rica. |
My parents are both immigrants. My dad was born in Nicaragua, and my mom was born in Costa Rica. My parents got married in Costa Rica and lived there for a bit. Around 1990, they decided to come to the United States, where some of my dad's relatives were already living. I was born shortly after.
Due to many complications, my mom has never had the opportunity to travel back to her home country. It has been as old as I am, 31 years, since my mom saw her mom and siblings in person. Growing up, I saw how ICTs and their advances brought my mom closer to her family, although they were countries apart. My mom, grandmother, and her siblings talked a lot on the phone, first a landline phone, then a cell phone. Then I received my first computer ever, a Compaq. Through this, we began using Skype around 2003/2004 to video chat with my grandmother. It was wonderful seeing my mom's joy. Having the ability to not only talk/chat but see her family virtually was something she was grateful for. Since then, we have all remained connected on social media, video chat, and texting through WhatsApp. My grandmother has never met my younger siblings, but ICTs have allowed her to see them virtually and remain in touch.
While I have witnessed how ICTs have changed family dynamics (my high school sister is usually on her phone 24/7 while we visit her and my family), it has helped many families, usually immigrant families stay connected, whether they live in a different city, state, or country. It has allowed me to stay relatively connected to the cousins I grew up with (they live in Charlotte, NC while I stayed behind in FL). It has allowed my family to stay connected with my dad's side of the family in Nicaragua. He's one of 11 kids, so we have many uncles, aunts, and cousins. It has allowed my husband and his family in the United States to stay connected to his family in Cuba, Spain, and Finland. It has even connected us with relatives we have yet to meet/learn about...
I couldn't think of what our lives would be like if we didn't have ICTs to help us communicate with our families and friends far away.
How do you stay connected with relatives that live far away?
While my family members do primarily live in the states, we are spread out and dispersed throughout the country. My dad has lived in Seattle, WA for the majority of my life, while I lived in Florida. The development of Facetime and Skype has helped us to stay connected and be apart of each other's lives in ways that we couldn't before. I also have siblings in the military, who are often very far away. I too, am grateful for the ability to communicate with my family members and friends who are far away.
ReplyDeleteI miss my family, but would miss them so much more without all of these communication technologies. I am isolated in Tallahassee -- just me, husband, kid, no strong network here. But my mother and sisters are just a message away. We have a family group chat. We send funny things back and forth on Instagram (great ways to say we're thinking of each other). And I see my cousins' kids grow up in photos on Facebook. I feel like I know these kids even though I am far away, and I am grateful to the opportunity to watch them grow in this way.
ReplyDelete31 years not seeing your family... That sounds really tough.. As an international student, I can totally relate to the use of technology to stay connected with my family. I Facetime with my parents living in Korea almost every week. Funny thing is that I I interact with them more often and for longer than I did in Korea. I used to live 2 hours drive distance away my parents in a different city, but we barely Facetimed back then, probably because we could meet in person quite easily as long as we wanted. Thanks to technology, I got to interact with my parents more often and learn more about them even though I'm living in a different country.
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