Technology

While crossing Spain with no mobile phone (battery dead, forgot to charge it due to very late night) and then arriving back in The Algarve to no internet, it makes one reflect on how helpless we are in the modern world without our high tech devices.

Communication is so easy nowadays that if we lose it, even for a day or so, we fret and worry and feel like something has been amputated. And really nothing is wrong at all, just a day or so of inability to say hello!

Our new high tech methods would seriously surprise previous generations. People who travelled extensively just a few decades ago were totally out of the loop until they got back. Friends and family who were at home knew nothing either unless the very rare and even more expensive telegram came.

Nowadays a phone call is something that we can usually make from any place in the world with the highest quality.

This goes hand in hand with the expansion of the overseas property industry. The more we can keep contact with our homes the more at home we feel while away. As more of us find our new homes abroad, we feel more connected to home.

Of course it's not just the internet and mobile phones. Travel has become easier and cheaper, bringing many points in the world closer. Although many say that the credit crunch has forced the low cost airlines to reduce their supply of flights, we still see Easy Jet with full flights and Ryan Air expanding into new destinations.

However, do we get adicted to this constant contact? Are not there some people who feel relief on a plane when they are told to switch their phones off? I am sure. Snagging Overseas staff travel a lot and we certainly can not be reached while on a plane, and that is sometimes really great! And yet now, while on a TAP flight recently, we saw that the No Smoking sign and had been changed for a No Electronic Devices sign. After takeoff we were informed that the use of mobile phones WAS ALLOWED! Where will it end? It will end with people being in contact with each others ALWAYS.

Is this good? We hope so.