Reflection: Homelessness and Technology

03Nov09

I am so glad that I changed my idea from “We are cyborgs” to “Homelessness and technology”. This is an idea that I came up with after watching an episode of MSNBC’s “Runaways”. It followed the life of a few teenagers who are living on the streets of San Diego. One of the girls was kicked out of her house and was living in a small room, but her lease was up and her parents were no longer supporting her after that month. She goes into a nearby hotel lobby where there is free interent access. She logs into social networking cites and connects with other homeless teens. The idea that you can be part of a community and not have a steady roof over your head is incredible. Also, the idea that these kids are using myspace to ban together, create friendships and find a their next place to stay. Obviously, they can communicate with each other and people they meet via the inter-web. For example, the same girl met a man one day who offered to have her stay at his house. For the next few weeks she emailed him and finally set up a date to meet him and move into his house. It ended up not working out, but she found a temporary home because she found interent access.

Living in Boulder, Colorado there are many people who are living on the streets. We walk past them all the time. In class recently, Kit was talking to the class and telling us about a field trip to the Wednesday Farmer’s Market with one of her classes. There was a homeless man that was asking for money and later he was holding a cell phone. This immediately got me thinking and I thought more about the documentary.

A friend of mine started a program called CU Serves that donates unused food from the dinning halls on campus. Having participated in many donation drop-offs, I have been aware of homelessness in Boulder. I want to talk to the people who work in the Boulder Homeless Shelter located in North Boulder, I also look forward to conducting interviews with those in the shelter that are homeless.

I was pleased and surprised to find a big handful of articles and sources to support my ideas. One of sources is a newspaper article with great pictures of homeless people carrying their belongings, dressed in raggedy clothes, yet carrying a cell phone. Scrolling down on the page, there was a link to a blog written by a homeless person who is living on the streets of Washington D.C.

This feels like a story that has to be told. Especially today in these tough economic times, many are being forced to live on the streets. Technology is very much a part of our lives. It seems not to matter whether or not you have a warm bed, clean clothes and food, access to the internet is easy to get (hotels/motels, public libraries, cafes). From my first idea to now, we are all cyborgs; it does not matter if we have roof over our heads or not.

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