Renaldo Hudson was a prisoner in the Danville Correctional Center who was released on September 2nd because of COVID-19 and the overcrowded space. He stepped out of that jail onto dry ground for the first time in 37 years. The year he was put into jail was 1983, long before the smartphone and highly-refined computers. He went to a non-profit organization so they could help him get back on his feet and get his life going again. One of the first things they handed him was a smartphone and he had no idea what to do with it. As the article states, '"People would say things like they were so simple.' Hudson, 57, said. 'Listen, go to your browser and open this up.' I'm like, 'Who is the browser?'" In 1983 technology was just starting to come about and nobody had it or used it because it was so bulky. The cellular phone then was bigger than a brick and weighed two or more pounds. The smartphone today ways just ounces and is so tiny and refined that people can just slip it into their pocket and it isn't a burden to carry at all. For someone to ask today what is a browser seems absolutely absurd to us and unimaginable, especially in the U.S.
Often we forget how far the world has come in 40 years; especially in technology, in 40 years we have gone from massive computers that are not portable to being able to carry laptops around in our school backpacks. We can simply just take the laptop out of our backpack and turn it on and we don't even think about how crazy that is and how it is crazy that it even works because it is everyday life. In the high school and even the middle school there are slim to no people who don't have a phone of some kind that they carry around with them. Most of these phones being smartphones. So when someone who hasn't seen the outside world comes into society and everything has changed drastically what are they supposed to do? The world has become a completely different place in 40 years and it would be insanely hard to adapt.
What would you do if you had just gotten out of prison and everything you once knew had completely changed?
I would try to adapt but I would know that it would not be easy. I would also be shocked at everything new in the world.
If you didn't have a smartphone with you at all times how would that make you feel?
I wouldn't mind to much because I'm not that attached to my phone, but today phones are almost essential for communication.
Replies
I think this is a great topic and your summary is well done! You could have replied quite a bit more times however.
It would make it really hard to get with the times especially if you don't even know what the "browser" is. I would try hard to understand, but that would take forever and I wouldn't know anything to begin with. It would take a day or so until you know how to text and call and know all the basics. If I didn't have a smartphone I wouldn't mind because I have other ways to communicate.
I think it'd feel really weird to get out of prison after so many years and see they world that I used to know completely changed. I would try to adapt but I'd be really difficult, especially if you consider the fact that if something like this happens to you it means that you are pretty old which makes it even harder.
I would probably go into some kind of shock and it would be crazy I would think I'm dreaming or watching some kind of sci-fi movie. sometimes when I am at home I don't have my phone with me it's not that big of a thing for me I could live without it.
I would be surprised and shocked that I was in that long. It would take a lot of getting used to. If my phone got taken away from m right now, I would defintly need a long time to adjust. But if I haven't had my phone for as long as I've had it I would be fine.
I feel like for people who have been in prison a long time definitely experience this with the new advancements and trends being set every day. It's more than just being in a pandemic, it's the way society uses the internet. I wouldn't like it because I'd be confused, not knowing how everything works and what the proper social etiquette is anymore.
I feel like that happens a lot for people when they get out of prision. I think it is more than just being in a pandemic. I personally would feel super weird because all i would have known was the indoors of the prision and whatever the world was like before prision. And without my phone I would feel very unconnected. It is my main way of contacting people.
This discussion brings up a good point about how much technology has become apart of our society. Not only have we made vast improvements in techonology over the past 40 years, we have changed the way we use it. From communication to entertainment, technology now plays a huge role in our daily lives. I can't imagine walking into our world after having been isolated for 40 years. It would definitely be a culture shock.
I think it would be very interesting like in this persons situation they come back and you have these crazy little phones that are very light weight and you can do many things with. I would be so confused on everthing that happened it's like your asleep and then you wake up and the world has changed so much.
Even today I feel very fortunate with the technology we have. If you think about it, every person in high school carries a computer around with them at all times, thinking about what computer used to look like this is crazy. I think technology has made huge advancements and it would be very confusing to step into the new world for the first time in 40 years.
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