New nostalgia

My mom is not the most technologically-literate person. She bought an iPod, but had trouble understanding the click-and-drop concept for transferring files to it. She's owned a cell phone for about three years now, but no matter how many times I show her how to check her voicemail, she never gets my messages. So you can imagine my surprise when, this past winter break, she called me over to the computer: "Anna, come here! It's Seville!"

I looked at the screen. And she was right; the streets of Seville were there, albeit in pixelated, two-dimensional form. My mom had discovered Google Maps, and instead of searching for her office or our house, her first instinct led her to the city where she studied abroad in college. I sat down next to her as she "led" me past her old apartment, the bar where she and her friends would get drinks, the corner grocery store... I had heard my mom speak nostalgically of Seville many times, and actually seeing images of these fabled places was almost as moving for me as it was for her.

But emotions aside, I was particularly interested in my mom's use of technology. I didn't teach her how to use Google Maps, and unlike an iPod or cell phone, she wasn't using it to simplify her life. It did, however, give her a good hour or so of enjoyment and cathartic nostalgia. I would compare it to any of the number of the other means we have for reliving events in our lives: photos, souvenirs, rereading diaries or letters, calling up an old friend. Yes, Google Maps is far more interactive than a photograph; but in my opinion, both serve the same purpose. Google Maps is just my mom's new way of living an old feeling: nostalgia.