New York Diary

Weird and Wonderful World

This wired, interconnected world of ours is amazing. I am writing this from New York, where I've just eaten supper. I had lunch in Charlotte, breakfast in Jacksonville, and I'll wake up tomorrow in Dublin. I've got a wireless daypass, which means I can surf the web in these airports. I have a Skype headset, which means I can chat to friends in Europe and New York.

But what really gets me is how easy and accessible these things are. I was given my headset for free, and Skyping people the world over costs precisely zero dollars. I say I have a wireless daypass, but the fact of the matter is that in neither Jacksonville nor Charlotte did I have to pay to use the airport's internet (and it seems that, by some fluke of the system, I'm on for free here in New York, too--though I don't think that's supposed to happen). It's not just possible for me to call Dublin to confirm flight times--without a phone, from an airport--but it's free.

Of course I had to buy my wireless-enabled laptop, and I had to hang out near an expat cafe in the city (where Skype was giving away free headsets), but these particular services still really do cost nothing. I didn't buy my laptop in order to chat every once-in-a-blue-moon when I'm having a long day of traveling.

And of course, the travelling isn't free. (In fact, given the decline of the dollar, international travel is insanely expensive.) But it still never ceases to amaze me. How the ancient Greeks--or even the colonial Americans--would have been stunned to see our cell phones, satellites, airplanes, and internet!

I'm stunned, too.

posted by Skay @ 7:29 PM