Outside Looking In
An American Expat’s Thoughts on Afghanistan, Social Media & Reasonable Boundaries
The first time I lived overseas was when I taught English in South Korea after college. It was either that or continue on at the call center offering free subscriptions for people who’d tried and given up on America Online. I can assure you, there was not much thought put in before I hopped that plane to Seoul with glee.
There were a few people with email back then, and I myself used America Online dialup — can you still hear that distinctive squeal? I remember one time after almost a year and several hundred crises, I used an actual landline, called my parents and racked up a bill of over $100 just to talk through a few things with them. Nowadays I video chat with my parents several times a week for free, even sometimes while they’re barreling down the road at 70 miles an hour.
I’ve lived in three countries over the last ten years, most of that time spent in Turkey, and I’ve watched the changes happening in my home country with an increasing mix of fascination and horror. Everything is exacerbated by the fact that we have very little face-to-face interaction with other Americans and most of the updates I get about how Americans are feeling is through social media. If you’d permit me, it’s from that perspective that I’d like…
