Home is the place where people feel relaxed and comfortable. Different people have different concepts of home. Some people may think home is like a root. It not only has a person’s memory, but also is a place where people relax with their family. However, people use the global technology to communicate with their family. Meanwhile, they think home is everywhere. “ Home is Every Place” by Pico Iyer tells about himself have several home in different places, so when he goes home, he have to flying frequently and it always is a long distance. Also, as a journalist, he is still flying to different places and lives in different kinds of hotels. It is not only because of it is his job, but also because he loves to travel around the world. Therefore, he feels anywhere can be his home. By contrast, “ Unplugged” by Geraldine Brooks tells about people who live in a small, rural town and do not want cable TV. The town’s people want to use technology in a minimum way because they prefer natural life. Other people think the town’s people are eccentric, because they reject cable TV, and they think that watching TV is waste off time, preferring a community with others rather than watching TV.
The first essay shows Iyer prefers to travel because he loves to see different cultures in the world. It is not only his job but also he prefers to do this, so that he can have several experiences. The residents of Waterford still keep their traditional way of living. They prefer relaxed and comfortable life and like everything to be familiar. Talking and living with same group of people is not see strangers everyday. In other words, global technology for people from different environments has several meanings and it influences people to have their own definition of home. People differ in their definitions of home. Most people think a place where they are rooted and grow up is home. The entire environment is familiar; the culture is tradition. However, some people do not think so. They may have different kinds of backgrounds, so that they cannot be like those people rooted in a place. Iyer writes that: “ the modern world seems increasingly made for people like me. I can plop myself down anywhere and find myself in the same relation of familiarity and strangeness” (Iyer 310).” It seems like Iyer has subjective think that there are a lot of people who are the same as he. Those people are familiar with going anywhere in the world. At the same time, they can adapt any residents as well as when they are at home.
For people who seem like Iyer, they do not have a root in the world. Also, they do not need a home, because they can find themselves easily in a strange country. People who have live like Iyer, they go to Lusaka, San Francisco to Osaka and so on, they think they are the foreigners in those places. However, they still think those are just location between continents and sea. They can go and leave and also, they can go anytime when they wants to. It is sound like they have an ability, to easily stay in a strange country, and for people who have a root do not have this ability. Although those people have a home in one place, most of the time they spends in hotels. Therefore, people whom like that, do not have roots in a place as they belong to the world. Also, they are the visitor in every place and every place can be their residence. Those kinds of lifestyles are their own definition of home. Meanwhile, those experiences are unique and different from people who are rooted in one place. Brooks has a neighbor Mike. She says his house: “ on Main Street doesn’t have a TV. But like most house here, it has broad views of farmland rolling away to the wooded hillside, and big, old maples in the garden” (Brooks 356). It shows that people who live in this town have a garden and good view of the town and they are relaxed.
They talk to people everyday and feel comfortable. It is a imagine picture to make people to think how wonderful to lives in this town without technology. Meanwhile, they do not want cable influence to their children. For example, Jake, a child who lives in the town, is reading a lot of Greek mythology to instead of watch movie. They want their children reread the book rather than watch bad TV channels. Cable will make them lose lot of knowledge. Therefore, cable television does not work in this town. In the world, Waterford is like a root for people who live in there. Moreover, it is their definition of home. They prefer their lives to be easy and comfortable. The development of technology has had an enormous effect on people’s lives. However, some people choose to reject it, because they like the traditional way to live. Many are willing to use it because they do not desire to conform to the rest of the world, but also the environment they live in. Iyer says that “ we don’t have home, we have a hundred homes.
And we can mix and match as the situation demands. ’Nobody’s history is my history” (Iyer 312). For people who go back and forth around the world, they do not have a root in one place and have a different experience in every place. Therefore, they mix different cultures, so that they become unique person. Although they do not have a root in a place, they can have several residents to stay. For example, when people go to Japan, they can be very Japanese; when they do not like it anymore, they can change themselves to go back their original life. They know what they want and they can perfectly mix and match those demands. In their concept, home is just a place to sleep and relax. Because of the global technology, it makes their travel faster and easier. On the contrary, some people do not think technology is convenient for their lives. They prefer the natural lifestyle. Brooks writes “ there aren’t many Quakers here now, buy they left behind a tradition of stubborn singularity. The townspeople- farmers and carpenters who’re arrived more recently like the fact that this place is different: always has been, always will”(Brooks 357). The people live in Waterford because they like the environment of this rural town.
They love the natural lifestyle that is using the technology in the minimum way. The people in the town will not change the way they live. However, when artists and engineers come in, they add some elements in this town, because those people came from outside world so that those people will quite different between the townspeople; with the time goes by, the townspeople will reconsider their thinking by talking and living with them. After all, rural people will change their ideas about the technology. In other words, new technology does not fit everyone; people have their own definition about how they live. Technology does not only influence the environment, but also influences people’s sense of attachment. Some people do not have an attachment to one location because they think they do not belong to anywhere, even their home. Another important factor is that they do not have is an identity to themselves. They are visitor in the global. However, some people are not. They love the place they live.
They belong to one town and that is their root. Brooks says that: “ it’s become eccentric not to way every place to be just like every other places”(Brooks 358). People finally use their own idea to explain what is the meaning of home. Also, they eccentric thinks that they want other rural same with what they did to reject cable and have natural life. On the other hand, that is why people are attached to Waterford. Those people use their own way to live and have an original lifestyle. At the same time, Waterford is their root in this world. They aspire to the comfortable, normally, easy life and that is people’s identity is themselves. On the contrary, there are small parts of people who have diverse experience of there life. Iyer says, “ Nothing is strange to us, and nowhere is foreign. We are visitors even in our own home” (Iyer 310). Those people who always travel is more familiar to those things, which are on hotel or public place. They see a lot and have experience traveling so that they are not afraid go to a strange city.
Also, they do not have any attachment to their home, because there are a plenty of time to stay outside rather than stay at home. Meanwhile, those people prefer to have a free, enjoyable, exciting life and ‘ visitor’ is their identity. They do not belong to anywhere. They belong to themselves. At last but not least, people’s attachment is base on what kind of environment surrounds them. Meanwhile, it can easier to help them identity themselves. In conclusion, global technology is helps those people connect easily with the world and have their own adventure; however, for some eccentric people, they think that they do not need to change their lifestyle but the outside people are used in different way to change the townspeople. They bring new lifestyle to add to the traditional way. However, these two contrary lifestyles influence people to change their meaning of home. As a result, different people make different choice of their life also makes them become unique person.
