Last week, I headed downtown for an appointment, at a place I’d found online. I rode the T to get there, of course, after confirming my itinerary and correct stops online. After that, I rode the T to a cafe to meet Abi and Shanna for our weekly coffee night – a place Shanna had found online (with the help, it must be said, of Groupon).
It got me thinking about how different this move is from any of the moves my family made when I was a kid. We moved four times before I was eight, the last time in 1992, and my parents couldn’t hunt for jobs or houses or anything else over the Internet. Once in a new place, they relied on friends, neighbors, coworkers and people they had just met (realtors, etc.) to help them find the grocery store, the doctor’s office, the mall, the pharmacy and other necessities.
However: Jeremiah found the job opening that propelled us here on a job-listings site. He looked for apartments on Craigslist before he came, and since we arrived, I have found the yoga studio, the pharmacy, the local knitting group, public transport information and SO MUCH OTHER STUFF online. (And I’ve been conducting my job search – and doing freelance work – over the Internet.)
Neither of us have smartphones – we’ve just been doing our searching at home and then trying out that info in Quincy or Boston or wherever. (We do have a handy car GPS device.) But it makes me wonder: even though moving is always difficult, how much easier has it become with the advent of the Internet? And how on earth did my mother find everything she needed to find, in Midland and Kingwood (near Houston) and Coppell (near Dallas), with no Internet and two small children? I suddenly have so much more respect for my parents, and for everyone who moved before the information superhighway was a part of our everyday lives.
cakes, tea and dreams 
Hey Katie,
Great reflection here. I hadn’t thought about the implications of the Internet age on social connection after a move to a new place. Very interesting. Might have to pitch an essay on that subject … would you mind if I mentioned you guys and perhaps interviewed you for a piece?
I enjoy reading your stuff!
Any news on the job-hunt front?
Steve
We moved a ton (and I mean a TON) between the time I was born and the time I graduated high school. I remember the Really Big Move – from SoCal to Nor – had to happen because my dad couldn’t find work where we lived. So he drove up to Northern California to scout work. It took about two weeks before he came back and we prepared to move away from the beaches and smog. Even now, my parents still don’t have internet in their home. Mom uses it at our house, and dad (I assume) uses it at work. I love that I can go online and have access to information my dad had to drive for hours to get 16 years ago.