Moving abroad to live a simpler life in a foreign culture just ain’t what it used to be. Today, technology keeps us all in touch with each other as well as with news and entertainment to the point that sometimes, it is hard to believe that I am sitting in a house one thousand kilometers west of Buenos Aires in a place where television only arrived a few years ago via satellite and we are lucky if the electricity doesn’t pop offline for a stretch of two weeks in a row.
But here I am, enjoying the results of all those clever engineers who figured out how to bundle information into strings of zeros and ones and make it possible to see events unfolding all over the world, talk to loved ones via video phones like the Jetsons did, carry a musical library around without needing a wall to hold it all, never ever run out of reading material, look at photos old and new that remind me of who I am and where I have been, learn a language with the aid of live communications with a helpful instructor, and so much more.
Here are just a few of the technological aids – present and soon to be – that might motivate those who are reluctant to let go of many pleasures, conveniences, and lifelines in order to make that leap into the great beyond.
Skype
What did we ever do without it? Even though the signal is almost never good enough to support the video where I live, and even though the audio does not always work either, Skype is fantastic – and the price is sure right. It’s difficult for me to understand how the phone companies can stay in business at all. I guess that as long as cell phones remain popular with teenagers and women wandering aimlessly though the grocery store, they will still be around. In the mean time, seeing as I don’t need or desire to be available to the world 24/7 (especially in the grocery store), and so much of my communications are very long distance, I will stick to the Big Sky with the “pe” on the end.
Online Language Learning
Language learning has gone hi-tech, and the possibilities are endless. You can find people to practice another language with via Skype at The Mixxer, find a tutor for private lessons also via Skype at LearnoutLive, or utilize programs such as Verbalplanet.com that utilize other audio formats for an innovative learning experience.
Netflix
It hasn’t happened just yet, but Netflix will be expanding into 43 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, they say sometime this year. According to their blog, you can access Netflix.com in your choice of English, Spanish, or Portuguese and watch streaming video on your TV or on your computer. This will provide a great service to people who are attached to their shows or to name your genre of cinema.
eBooks
Speaking of books, there are, of course, digitized versions of almost everything ever published, at this point – and you don’t necessarily need yet another separate eReader gadget, unless you want one. Did you know that you can download free versions of the Kindle and Apple eReaders for Windows and Mac – for FREE? There are also online resources such as Project Guttenberg, which has over 36,000 eBooks available for free download in a variety of reading formats. Sites such as Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Sony’s Reader Store, kobobooks.com, and Deisel offer low-cost eBooks and many free promotional books, while the independent eBook publishing site, Smashwords.com, has thousands of titles by new authors.
And More
Of course, there is digital sound technology that is making music in our ears, and having books and magazines read to us by professionals is a surprisingly enhancing way to absorb material that would otherwise be lines of symbols on a screen or a page.
And there are so many more ways that technology can enhance the lives of people by storing information and allowing for communications. One might call it 21st Century Soul Food.
For more ways that digital technology can enhance the expat experience, see:
To contact Julie regarding this article, email: julie@expatdailynews.com
Julie R Butler is a traveler, blogger, freelance writer, and editor who has authored several books, self-published as eBooks, including Nine Months In Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). To contact Julie about writing or editing work, email: julierbutler [at] yahoo.com.
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