Technology is meant to better our lives; to deliver fast results, convenience, and to connect us with people we care about. In our life-work-balance discourse, I wholly nominate technology as our saving grace. Smart phones and wireless internet help me to make a smooth transition from the office to the bedroom. Answering my emails on the train ride home leaves me with one less thing to do when I get there. The ability to maintain constant connections via phones and social media has been an exciting aid in reaching out to friends and building relationships. I wonder though, have we become overzealous in our long distance relationships?

From what I hear of the analog days, it seems like people networked within a relatively small radius. You met someone in school, in your neighborhood, in your office building…etc. Now however, long distance relationships seem to be springing up everywhere. We’re not pen pals anymore. With phones, texting, video messaging, Skype, AIM, and a goodie bag of social media websites, we can stay in touch with our distant significant other, have real time conversations, and see each other on our computer screens while we chat. It’s possible that two people living many miles apart will communicate more now than two analog people living on the same block. This sounds great doesn’t it? The only problem is, we’re seeing people less and typing messages to them more. Are these digital relationships realistic, hopeful, and meaningful? I’m a little skeptical…

I had always considered myself a die-hard New Yorker. Though I wasn’t born in the states, this city has raised me and has catered to anything I’d ever desired. This includes, of course, pizza, bagels, nightclubs, and a multi-cultural circle of friends. Living anywhere where delicatessens closed earlier than midnight seemed absurd. This outlook hasn’t changed, and as I’ve begun my attempt at a career, being anywhere but New York is just counterproductive. Still, I keep looking into the future and wondering whether I’ll always be happy here, and whether this urban landscape and fast paced environment will ever finally get to me.

I think it happens to us all; the subway just gets too cramped, the streets get too noisy at night, and the smell of pollution floats a bit too easily on the afternoon air. Sure we have some escapes; central park, my local beach, and dare I say, upstate New York, but I wonder what it’d be like to have all those things in your backyard. Many people choose to relocate for family’s sake; marriage, kids, the works. “Settling down”.

It’s silly that I’m thinking about this now. I’ve only begun living a life that is my own and not guided by class schedules and holiday breaks. Maybe that’s why these thoughts come to mind. Lifestyle is as much defined by your location as it is by your career. But what happens when those two clash? Having a high powered career in communications isn’t exactly synonymous with a quiet life in, say North Carolina (where a friend has recently invited me to come live). More importantly, does abandoning New York mean abandoning the New Yorker that I am? Are we trapped here, loving it and hating it all at once? I suppose I have my twenties to get everything urban out of my system, and let my career be my guide.