{"id":7280,"date":"2022-05-02T09:48:12","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T13:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=7280"},"modified":"2025-08-23T17:15:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T21:15:54","slug":"how-technology-keeps-families-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2022\/05\/02\/how-technology-keeps-families-together\/","title":{"rendered":"How Technology Keeps Families Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kat Rivera, an office worker in Portland, lives with her younger sister, Ariana Rivera. The two live quite far from their mother, who lives in Puerto Rico, where the Rivera sisters were born. They had to move to the U.S. at a young age for a better chance at life. Their mother had to stay in Puerto Rico.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhen I was younger and moved to the U.S., there wasn\u2019t all this technology to communicate with my mom,\u201d Kat Rivera said. \u201cIt was very hard because I knew I wouldn\u2019t be able to talk with her much. I had to wait for a free time to call her and I didn\u2019t have a good phone plan.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Today, Kat Rivera uses FaceTime and Messenger to communicate with<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

FaceTime logo.<\/p><\/div>\n

her mother many times throughout the day. She uses it to send pictures and videos of herself and life events.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cIt brightens my day when my mother sends me a beautiful selfie or a picture back home. It warms my heart to see that the town I grew up in is still the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Before there were apps such as Skype and FaceTime, one had to physically visit family or friends to see them. Without this technology, families who have been separated for whatever reason would not be able to communicate so freely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt almost feels like being in the same room with her. We even baked together once. I had my laptop and phone. I recorded myself with the phone while I looked at the recipe on my laptop. Now that I\u2019m thinking about it, I\u2019m so grateful for all this technology that is at my fingertips,\u201d Kat Rivera said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kat Rivera\u2019s sister, Ariana, recently had her first baby. Her mother was not there to witness the birth in person. She was able to be there over FaceTime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI was so terrified to have a baby without my mother being there. I thought, I\u2019ll never get to experience this again. My mother can\u2019t even hold him. I was so happy when Kat brought the camera in the room with me. She faced it toward me and when I heard my mother\u2019s voice I cried,\u201d Ariana Rivera said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNow we call her every morning and night to show her the baby. If we can\u2019t call, we send her pictures and videos. My mom smiles so wide when she sees him. I know she can\u2019t wait to see him in person, but this is good enough for now,\u201d Kat Rivera said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nowadays, it is second nature for children to FaceTime with relatives and friends. It\u2019s something to do when they\u2019re bored at home or to check in on someone who lives just down the road. When the Rivera sisters were little, they had to physically visit their friends and family to see them. Ariana says that she remembers having a dial-up internet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMy heart would sink when I heard the busy signal. I had to disconnect from the internet just to make a phone call, only to have my heart broken when the call would not go through. Children have it so convenient nowadays. I\u2019m really glad my nephew will be growing up with all this technology at his fingertips,\u201d Kat Rivera said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOur other sister Sara had a gender reveal party almost completely online in the beginning of COVID. She even had a virtual baby shower. Without technology, events during the pandemic would be nearly impossible,\u201d Ariana Rivera said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kat Rivera, an office worker in Portland, lives with her younger sister, Ariana Rivera. The two live quite far from their mother, who lives in Puerto Rico, where the Rivera sisters were born. They had to move to the U.S. at a young age for a better chance at life. Their mother had to stay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8114,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280\/revisions\/8114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}