Yesterday, we lost our Internet access. Here in the a-p-t, we shell out for the best WiFi we can get, and with five girls and all our assorted friends accessing the web all day, we need it. But yesterday, for several hours, we couldn’t get it.
To be honest, I take the Internet completely for granted. With e-mail, Facebook, news aggregates, maps, class syllabi, and everything else now online, high-speed Internet is no longer a luxury for me — it is a necessity.
And then — suddenly — I couldn’t access any of it. I’m embarrassed to say it actually took me a little while to think of something productive to do off-line, until I picked up a novel assigned for class. Even then, I found it difficult to engage with the book. I should be able to get Internet, I thought. I may not need it right now, but I have paid for it, and I should be able to have it.
I puzzled over it, and my roommates puzzled over it, and we tried every trick we knew: restarting, refreshing our IP address, rebooting the modem. Nothing worked.
And as I stared at my off-line Macbook, repeatedly tapping the refresh key on the outside chance something might suddenly fall together and grant me the power of Google, I realized my sense of entitlement to the web is just another not-so-attractive symptom of a plugged-in generation. All this information, all this news, and I didn’t even value it — I just wanted it.
So to greater appreciate the Internet and my life in general, I reflected upon the mid-nineties (always a good option no matter what the situation). Then, I felt better about myself and the web.
Because remember the nineties? Remember trying to get online? The drama? The struggle? The dial-up connection?
In 1998, getting trying to get on the World Wide Web at my house went something like this:
Head to the kitchen, stand poised over amazing ‘wireless’ home phone, and holler, “DOES ANYONE NEED THE PHONE?” No? Alright then.
Yank the phone line from the wall, effectively cutting off all communication to our home. Rush into the dining room, and unspool a thirty-foot line of cable across the dining room, kitchen, and breakfast nook. Plug in to the phone jack.
Rush back to the computer. Click “Kmart Bluelight Internet” and watch a brief Kmart commercial (Wow, a video! On the web!) in exchange for “free” dial-up Internet.
Listen to this sound:
(You remember that sound, don’t you?)
Wait about fifteen minutes. Cross your fingers and wish for the homepage.
Visit a primitive search engine. Spend more time waiting for your page to load than actually accessing the information you need.
Contemplate on the widespread speculation that someday you will be able to find everything you need on this dang Internet. Wonder if it is even worth it, at speeds like that.
Sigh. Unplug your Internet. Plug in your phone. Wind up thirty feet of wire. Live your life mostly unaffected by the WWW.
Come back to 2010. Your MacBook weighs less than five pounds, and generally picks up the Internet without you even thinking about it. Realize you have become completely unreasonable.
Go read a book.
College Kate 