If you punch in someone’s number, a map will pop up with their exact location pinpointed. Incentive not to give out your number half-drunk at a bar, right?
Likewise, video cameras will be/are available to be installed throughout homes—even in a pet’s food dish. By accessing the cameras from phones, you can monitor your house from work.
So, like any American, my mind raced to homicidal voyeurists. I cringed at the idea of a Two Hour Photo serial killer sitting in front of a computer with a Mountain Dew leering at me through Fido’s food bowl as I lounged in my pajamas watching Seinfeld reruns.
“What precautions are being taken to make sure no one hacks into the system?” I asked our tour guide.
“Oh, it will happen,” she said nonchalantly. “It will happen eventually. But we are implementing lots of security to make sure it doesn’t happen often.”
The technology has also transformed news media overseas. Convergence — various media like T.V., internet and print mashing together — has happened to a greater extent in the East.
At a T.V. station we visited, our guide pulled out his cell phone. He pushed a button, and, much to our awe, a two-by-two-inch screen popped out, and the broadcast just taped in the studio was transmitted to his cell phone.
I asked multiple companies what they had done to prepare for transitioning to the new technology. No one seemed phased by it. They, in fact, sometimes seemed surprised I asked. They simply learned it and adapted.
Then again, as a whole, the people have had to adapt often throughout their lifetimes. We visited the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and learned of the war hardships Koreans have endured—all of it very, very recently.
We looked across the border into North Korea where there is no freedom. We visited a temple in Japan burnt down by a mad monk driven to desperation after years of war. Koreans and Japanese, especially the older ones, had seen both poverty and riches, war and peace.
Perhaps that appreciation made the culture traditionally more genteel. Everywhere we went, I noticed an overall politeness. The airport was bustling, but courteously silent. I did not see a single piece of litter in Japan or South Korea, but I could seldom find a trash can. Likewise, people bowed when they said thank you. Or hello. Or goodbye. Etcetera.
No one dressed immodestly. Fashion required effort and planning, and the women were lovely.
Yet Americans were “the cool thing” in the East. Everywhere we went, we saw tee shirts with English text scrawled across—often nonsensically. (You wonder what they think of our tees with Japanese or Korean characters.)
For example, I saw an old man walking through an airport with a shirt that exclaimed, “Bed me, please!” He was no doubt oblivious. At the demilitarized zone, we saw a little girl, probably a kindergartener, wearing a shirt proudly proclaiming “Sexpot.” The English coolness extends from clothes, though. In a karaoke bar we visited, many American pop songs were available. Not far away, the karaoke bathroom was labeled, “It’s toilet!”
So of course the English coolness appeared in the technological realm. The catch-phrase for the ever-changing technology was “Ubiquitous World.” Everything futuristic was “ubiquitous.” It was written on posters, tagged to technology displays. Tour guides proudly described the “ubiquitous future” their product would bring about.
The return has been equally eye-opening. The Chicago and Denver airports were typically loud and chaotic. I stepped on someone’s discarded McDonald’s bag. Women wear sweat pants and a grubby, too-tight T-shirt, calling the look “sporty.”
Yet I can read the menu and order food I recognize. I can strike up random conversations in store lines, and everyone speaks my language. I can pronounce the street I’m driving on.
It’s not an adventure, but at least, it’s familiar. Meanwhile, I answer my phone, reveling in the fact that I finally get service. But when I look down, I notice the Samsung logo on the front. Perhaps the world is more ubiquitous than I realized."
Copyright Jill Mechior 2006 All Rights Reserved
