Where Has My Internet Gone??? And Why Do I Care???

Posted on by under Personal, Social commentary

It is amazing and sad how reliant we have become on communication technology.  Monday morning, I awoke to find both landline and internet service was out.  I won’t bore you with my frustrating attempts to contact our service provider (or maybe I will, but that is a whole post in and of itself) to determine if there was a system-wide outage or only our home, but at the end of two hours it was determined that the problem was in our lines somewhere and a repair technician would be required.  The soonest date available for this was Wednesday, two days hence.

Okay, I have a cell phone that can use 4G, whatever the heck that is, to connect me to the outside world, so it won’t matter that all three computers in the house are without communication and I cannot connect outside with my Kindle, right?  Since I am visually challenged, the phone is a little harder to see, but with my 500x magnifying glasses, it is a workable solution as long as I can keep it charged.  No problem, right?  I have been saying for quite some time now that I am going to take a full week and stay off the internet so I can get some major projects done around the house without distractions, so what better time, right?

Okay, so first things first.  Maybe I should just try to re-set the wireless router … just one more time.  Third time’s a charm, right? And maybe if I use some canned air to blow the dust out of the trunk jack coming into the house … could be just dust, right?  Nope, none of that worked.  Okay … let’s get busy and … wait … there is a guy up the street who works for the telephone/internet company we use … maybe if I went and asked him … okay, forget that.

The upstairs hallway really, really needs a good cleaning.  I trudge up all fifteen steps, look around for a minute, run my finger through the dust on the mini-fridge … eh, there’s always tomorrow, right?  Back downstairs, I look at my laptop again … nope, still got that annoying little yellow slash across the wireless icon.  Sigh.  Okay, this is the time I would normally spend writing, during the quiet hours while the felines are sleeping off their morning meal and before my granddaughter gets up.  I won’t be able to post to my blog, but since I won’t be wasting time being distracted by trolling social media and news sites, I should be able to knock out at least two or maybe even three blog posts and have them ready to post on Wednesday!  Excited now … I know the first one I wanted to write, inspired by the story of the armed invaders squatting on a federal wildlife preserve in Oregon.  Now I just need to do some research … hit the Firefox button … “Please check your internet connection”.  Oh.  Yeah, that.  Never mind … I can figure this out.  Turn off the WiFi on the cell phone so it automatically goes to 4G, and it may be small, but I have magnification glasses and a small lighted magnifier.  Check.  Go to email, as I am sure to have a few news digests in my inbox featuring the story I am looking for … yes, there’s one.  Click.  Wait.  Click.  Wait.  Wait.  Still waiting.  Click click click … smack phone against palm.  Back at home screen.  Repeat steps 1 thru 5.  Sigh.  This is not working.  Let’s try re-setting the wireless router one more time.

Forget writing.  I know … I will work on getting some more music on the iPod the girls gave me for Christmas!  That will be fun … oh, ITunes only works with internet.  Fine, I’ll just go mop the kitchen floor and then read for a while.

This was how it went for two days, and the upside is that I nearly finished a 700+ page book by Tom Clancy and read part of another about Franklin D. Roosevelt and WWII.  But this whole thing made me realize how pathetic our reliance on the internet is.  I felt adrift and cut off, even though I was able to converse via text and chat with a few friends on my cell phone.  Did I mention how hard it is to type on a teeny-tiny keyboard and how much I detest “auto-correct”? I felt almost as if I were in a “time-out” being punished for some wrong doing.  How did this happen?  What have we become?  I was not alone in this feeling, as my granddaughter went through basically the same withdrawal process that I did, thinking that since she couldn’t get on Facebook or any of her favorite art sites, she would just load some games with her Nintendo points card … oops, afraid not!  I remember the days before cell phones, before the internet as we know it today, and even before personal computers.  We all seemed perfectly happy back then.  At least I remember being happy before I even knew it was possible to do all the things we do today.  So what happened and how did it happen?  Should we be worried, or just accept it and move on … until the morning when we wake up and find that …. GASP … the internet is out!!!!

15 thoughts on “Where Has My Internet Gone??? And Why Do I Care???”

  1. This is hilarious for so many reasons. First, as I don’t have a laptop or a PC, I do basically everything on my smartphone: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, IG, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Type notes, etc so its kinda weird to see you “underuse” your smartphone.

    Secondly, I’d kill for a 4G internet connection. The only place you’ll get WiFi here are in big offices or universities and even then they are usually either password protected or slow. Oh yes, and in rich people’s houses lol. So us ordinary people have to stick to mobile internet connection with the fastest available now being 3G although you won’t get that everywhere.

    Lastly, I just returned from a field trip at a location that had really poor internet and I wasn’t so bummed about it. I was pleasantly surprised to find I didn’t really mind being without internet tho noe that I think about it, poor internet connection is different from nonexistent internet. I always knew I still had the option at the back of my mind.I dont know what I would have done if it was completely unavailable

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    • Yes, I am rather spoiled as it were. We have “affordable” wireless internet and laptops … this being pretty much the norm in this country, I tend to forget that these are luxuries many in other countries do not have! I think I need to remember to be thankful instead of whining over 2 days having to use only my cell phone! Thanks for the timely reminder, my friend! 🙂

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  2. It is so frustrating. Although sometimes I don’t use it at all, it is the thought that counts. The longer I know it is not working, the more worked up I become. I need to know it is there just in case….. my sister needs me, or one of the kids, or I need to look something up. I am more content knowing it is working and not using it, then it being down. So, yes, I can identify with your frustration. What Did We Do Before All Of That? Have a great evening my friend.

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    • I know … it’s kind of like the car … as long as I know it is sitting out front and would start if I wanted to go somewhere, I am perfectly content to stay home. But as soon as the car is in the shop or won’t start, I go stir-crazy! We are … human … 🙂

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  3. This was so funny to read! (And YES, I do absolutely hate auto-correct!!!) In a way it was sad too… we really are depending on the internet a lot these days. Maybe that is one of the reasons I am still resisting the lures of a smart phone: I want to prove to myself that I can do just with my dumb phone (calling and texting, that’s it) when I am out and about in the city. Of course if I spend an afternoon waiting for the boys doing their sports I can always take the laptop and enjoy free wifi at the cafe there. 😉

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    • Ah yes … the smart phone! I have a love-hate relationship with mine! I was perfectly happy with my little flip-phone … it fit quite nicely into my pocket, and I could text and talk … who needs anything else, right? But … my daughter decided I needed to be able to do many other things, so about 7 years ago she bought me my first ‘smart’ phone. I am now on my 2nd one and more often than not I hate it and am threatening to chop it into tidbits with a hammer! But then … I am waiting for my neighbor’s son at school and I just want to check email or facebook … and then, for a brief moment, I love it. Like I said … love-hate …

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  4. I find myself so conflicted about this. Where we live, cell phone reception is so poor, that the WiFi in the house is important for receiving messages and the landline is essential. I don’t mind not being available on my cell. I have a satellite internet provider: no convergence for me. I’m not going to rely on a single provider: I couldn’t be without both landline and internet with a bad cell phone signal. It’s all about work, you know. Or it was. I also find myself not doing things that I used to really enjoy – not just reading, but things like knitting and sewing. Some of that is directly attributable to spending more time on the social media and my blog. And yes, it has become addictive: although I often go out without my phone, I find that I come in and the first thing I do is check it to see what’s happened where.

    All of that said, we have had outage issues here – usually when I’m working on a deadline. Recently with the electricity crisis and scheduled blackouts, I planned to do things like clean or some of the other stuff I’ve already mentioned. I think it’s the inconvenience and the extent to which we now take some of these things for granted – like electricity – until we don’t have it.

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  5. I just recently got back into social media after a 2yr break. The most I do online now is read blogs on wordpress,and that has already gotten addictive. I did manage 2 weeks without the internet over the holidays so I think I am not completely pulled back in yet. I do remember a similar state to yours a few years back!

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