I know my wife is safe & I have “bad” tech companies to thank for that
The company you hate one day is the same one that gives you piece of mind the next day.
Phones built by slave labor in warehouses
Bros are take over parks from locals
When it comes to the big tech companies & diversity, messages like this about how bad Google (or any other company) is are out there, over and over
Facebook is letting politicians make ads with false information, what?
Amazon is killing people by overworking drivers, (wonder how much of that is offset by the amount of people who would be driving just a few miles from their houses and dying in car accidents on their way to buy goods and services?)
But today I’m deeply thankful for tech, even though the companies aren’t always doing the things I wish they did.
Here’s why I’m grateful…over the last 17 years my wife has been going to Nicaragua a LOT, and I don’t mean some surf town eco-lodge, she is in deep, rural Nicaragua working with her team members and employees, check up on projects they are working on etc. Why? She co-founded a water non profit that was acquired a few years years ago, but she’s been at this for 17 years!
I used to drop her off at the airport, scared AF and it could be weeks before I heard from her again.
Do you know what that feels like? Some of ya’ll might, but it was tough, all I had was my imagination on if she was OK, if she got dengue fever, if she got kidnapped, if she was on one of those buses full of people that slides down hill in rainy season.
I had no way of knowing for weeks and weeks. Now I’m an optimistic guy, so I don’t think like that, but its hard not to when hours and hours go by without any communication. Nora nonchalatly would talk about bribing people, what?
Nicaragua has a pretty tough history, especially with the US, Google it.
She can tell you stories of how transportation from the airport to the town works. Buses are ok, but can be a bit dangerous. So someone, someone she trusts is picking her up in their pick up truck with 2–6 other people, she may or may not know. She will be sitting in the back of a pickup truck for 7 hours on mostly unpaved roads with strangers in a country where things are at times are scary? And I won’t hear from her? Awesome.
As proud as I was that that was my girl, eventually my wife, it sucks to sit around with your phone on extra loud cause if she can get WiFi for 2 seconds over a span of 2–3–4 weeks you ain’t missing that call, if you miss it could be 2 more hours or 2 more weeks before you hear from them again.
You hope people protect her there.
You hope the helicopter insurance doesn’t need to be used, but you just don’t know.
Luckily about 7 years ago I made it myself so I got to see where she works, that did make things a bit better. My first trip internet was non existent, but at least we were together, taking cold showers and eating rice and beans something fierce.
I worried a little less, and then slowly over time with each time we went my phone started to get more and more signal. One day a hotel showed up, so she wasn’t staying at the priests house or some rando’s house anymore. By my third trip I had 2g the whole time. so I could get a text. That was 5 years ago.
Fast forward to today… Signal works everywhere.
Thanks Tech Bros and Gals
Whatever tech bros worked on WiFi, and 3g networks, Idon’t care if you were a group of all white dudes or not. You enable me to be consistently connected to my wife for the next 10 days, while I hold shit down at home, you help me worry less.
Whatever gentrifying bros built Google maps thank you. I want you to be a better company, but I can not deny that your impact on me and many people like me is REAL. Thank you for that.
I’m able to sleep easy watching my wife take the 7 hour drive in real time on Google Maps using shared location, you know how calming that is?
She is with a man I don’t know and I can’t do anything for her, but I can watch her route and know she’s going where she’s supposed to be going.
She and i texted most of her trip, she even referenced that while in the drive she could watch me reading to the boys on our nest cam. I would have never thought in a million years that her mobile internet would be strong enough to do that.
We texted the whole way there, laughing and joking. It was meaningful and at that time, maybe selfishly I didn’t think about how much I’m trying to avoid posting to Facebook and Instagram because I just think the shit is fake AF, I didn’t think about how much I dislike tech bro culture, or how much I wish Google would lead. I got to know my wife was safe, and not just once, multiple times a day. Back in the day if I got 1 call or 1 email in 10 days i was stoked. Now we can communicate all day. I’m thankful for tech, nothing is all good, no company is all good or all bad. Including mine.
Yesterday we used Duo and she was able to watch me give the boys a bath (they splashed the hell outta me), they got to see momma and say hi and all that jazz, just years ago we got NONE of that interaction, just worry.
Now instead of me seeing the pictures 2 weeks or 3 weeks after she takes them, I get them in real time.
So to every one of you who has worked on internet, wifi, 3g, 2g, image compression, video compression, mobile phones, facebook messenger, etc. Today I’ll say thank you! Thank you. You have given me a peace of mind that I appreciate, it doesn’t mean I love your companies all the time, but I’m thankful and appreciate what they have accomplished.
If you’ve read this far, I’d love for you to think of something that hit me on my last trip to waslala, Nora founded a clean water non profit, and she is still going back to complete her work to eradicate the water crisis in waslala 17 years later, yet she’s able to post videos to Facebook.
Let that sink in. And remember there’s no business model in getting clean safe drinking water to people, in the last 10 years they went from no phones / internet to 3g. But in 100s of years they still require non profits to help them get clean water.
