Of technology and vocabulary: Noelle in America

People have asked me about culture shock.  Usually they mean in terms of my experiences going to Africa.  Generally what I say is that, in my experience, coming back is always worse.

And it is.  The culture shock this time hasn’t been too bad, actually.  I think I was so excited to be able to have the things I’d been without that there wasn’t too much shock about it.  Pants. Yummy food. Air Conditioning (my body was seriously weirded out by it).  Ice Cream.  Cheez its.  People.  People whom I reallllyyyy  love a ton.  Cars.  Electricity, all the time.  Hot, clean water.

You get the point.

I did go into momentary overwhelmedness a few times.  I know that’s not a word.  Coffee Shops.  Menues.  Book Stores.  Gas Prices.  The cereal isle.  The ice cream isle.  Food prices.  Driving fast.

I avoided Sam’s Club.

But there were 2 areas which have consistently befudeled me.  

Technology and vocabulary. 

I was only gone 13 months, remember!

But already, technology has outstripped me.  The touch screen everything, the unspoken expectation that one has a smart phone, TVs at gas station pumps.  

Even my owning of technology has increased an insane amount.  Kindle, 2 computes, camera, ipod...blah blah blah.  All of it will be very helpful for me while I work, but really!?  Technology

On the other side of techonology, I have noticed that the majority of my friends are no longer in college... by the lessening facebook use.  It’s pretty funny, my friends generally have real jobs these days and, unless they are my sister, probably don’t status update much.  Funny that shift.  By the way, what the heck is Google + and why should I care?

And vocabulary.  What the heck is a hipster?  Where did “epic fail” go?  My dad used the term “fail” the other day, which tells me that it is probably on its way out.   I can’t even remember some of the foreign terms I learned from my very up-to-date cousins.  Or how about all the new stuff for babies, I am clueless.

The other day I got an email that made me laugh out loud.  It included a number of acronyms and locations, which I did not know.  I sent an amusing email back about my process of interpretation.  Apparently I no longer speak the vernacular. 

I’m only 24 and I already feel technologically and vocabularily stupid. 

Time to go back to Africa.