Monday I was FINALLY hooked up with phone service at my house, and yesterday my DSL modem arrived!
That was 19 days I went without having internet access at home. I don’t think I’ve gone more than a week without some kind of online access since my days of connecting to computer bulletin board systems on my Atari 800XL computer. And talk about broadband, that was with a state-of-the-art, 300 baud modem. Yes, I am old.
Being without home internet access for so long made me realize how much it’s a part of my everyday activities: reading the online news in the morning with a cup of coffee, using it to find phone numbers, getting a quick map, listening to new music streams, and just keeping up with friends and family. I almost felt like I had lost one of my senses.
Yeah, you don’t realize how useful it is until it’s gone. My modem was borked the other day and I was without access for about a week. My book reading increased during that week though, so there is something to be said for not being connected sometimes.
I think it’s hard for me to unplug. I could fire up a browser in the morning for news and have it open all day, listening to Pandora or noodling around the web. Unplugging can be good, just not for too long. 😉