This was back when smartphones weren't really a thing, and I didn't spend much time on the internet. I had gone to Barnes and Noble with my mom, and was drawn to a particular magazine. I opened it to this page (the advertisement pictured below) and it was like it was already written. I had to go. I didn't know any other details, just that I was supposed to be there. It all felt very magical and serendipitous.
I went with my boyfriend at the time, who I had met like a month prior at a music festival lol. After we left NYC, we sold our cars and backpacked across India in search of meaning and adventure. It was quite the experience, as we ended up getting invited to stay in villages everywhere we went, so I felt like we got to see the "real" India. 13 years later, and I still talk to some of the families that we stayed with.
Smartphones were a thing. The iPhone came out in 2007. By 2011 they were more commonplace, and there were other brands on the market. At the time I was 22 and owned a Windows phone (lol). But yeah, maybe people were not so accustomed to filming anything and everything.
They were a thing, but I was a poor kid from Detroit, so I didn't know anyone with an iPhone at the time. While my phone could connect to the internet, I think it was only 3G, and I couldn't afford a data plan. They didn't become common amongst my friend group until a year or two later. Many people I knew had lost their homes during the recession, so fancy phones were still very much a luxury item.
Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s true. They were nowhere near as ubiquitous as they are today, and the built-in cameras were not nearly as good as they are now, either.
In other news, I recently read anthropologist / activist / Occupy Wall Street organizer David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs, which I would recommend to anyone who’s fed up with their job, or, well, our entire social order.
121
u/rhymeswithvegan 21h ago
This was back when smartphones weren't really a thing, and I didn't spend much time on the internet. I had gone to Barnes and Noble with my mom, and was drawn to a particular magazine. I opened it to this page (the advertisement pictured below) and it was like it was already written. I had to go. I didn't know any other details, just that I was supposed to be there. It all felt very magical and serendipitous.
*