How has technology impacted the Global Nomad experience? Global Nomads: Finding Home in the Age of Technology looks at the global nomad experience over the past 20 years and includes student interviews from 1994, 2001, and 2014. Building on the interviews in its predecessor Global Nomads: Cultural Bridges for the New Millennium (2001), this new video illustrates the impact of technology and social media over time.
“I never thought my background would impact me as much as I now realize it has – I always thought I was unique and others didn’t share the same feelings.” – Ala
The enthusiasm and energy between the GN/TCK college students in these videos is evident, as they share experiences and insights with others who can truly understand them and share a common culture. They speak with clarity, honesty, and eloquence about both the joys and struggles that come with their internationally mobile backgrounds.
-Producer Alice Wu.
In March, I traveled for two incredible weeks. The first week I spent interacting with adult third culture kids (ATCKs) who had come for a reunion at their former boarding school in Asia. As I watched the happy hugs on arrival, the telling of both hard and wonderful memories, the tears that also came, I knew they were allowing me to share in their sacred spaces. Some had not been back or seen each other for forty years. And yet, here they were – daring to believe that there were important sparks to kindle from relationships and experiences shared in years long gone. Many stayed together in smaller groups the following week to explore places that also held important memories for them. Pictures of foods and locations unknown to me but obviously delightful to them were shared with one another. What was this magical connection I was not only watching, but feeling with them despite the fact I had grown up on a totally different continent than they?