Stoner - Culture Shock

I especially enjoyed Professor Stoner’s presentation on her work with culture shock and how it is affected with new media of today. I am half Middle Eastern and have gone to the Middle East several times in my life to visit family members. My cousins live in the countryside and constant Internet and even power for that matter are not something taken for granted as they are here in America, especially in a big city like Chicago. That combined with my non-international phone plan definitely created a feeling of culture shock. Since we do not go often when we do it is a summer at a time and so Professor Stoner’s outline of the time frame for when culture shock will occur, being after the honeymoon stage, struck close to home. The honeymoon stage is all too easy to relate to, you are in a foreign country and it’s exciting to see family and to see what has changed, things you’ve forgotten about, things you haven’t seen before, etc. Then, all too soon it seems, the culture shock stage, realizing the reality of your cut off predicament, comes along. I realize I would actually miss checking Facebook, keeping up with my friends and family at home, amenities and conveniences even from home became something you thought a lot more about even though they were taken for granted before.

            Occasionally I would get my “fix” of Facebook time when the Internet would be up and the power would be on long enough to get on the computer and stay on. It really made me think of how different the experience would be if I really, truly was cut off completely from Facebook would I have gone a bit more stir crazy? Eventually I did make it to the adjustment stage but it becomes a different way of being adjusted than at home. Where at home I am adjusted again by having my phone attached to my hip and my laptop easily accessible, etc. I would find myself spending more time reading or going out and exploring. It makes the arrival home seem like a shock yet again. Once I had my phone again I was almost annoyed that I was being texted, as if my friends were trying to bother me, it all did not seem like anything to me at the time but when Professor Stoner brought the topic up I thought back to this immediately and it seemed to makes sense suddenly.

            Although I would clearly have no background in studying this topic from my personal experience I would have to say that it seems like even though I did in fact have limited Facebook access it almost seemed to make the culture shock worse. Instead of feeling like it lessened the blow, like “oh it’s so nice to be connected to my friends back home!” it was more of a “I wish I didn’t know everyone was having such an amazing time while I’m stuck here with my family”. So while I cannot speak from any experience not having Facebook, I felt that I almost wished I didn’t even have that limited access because it served, to me, as a reminder of what I was missing out on.