A Failed Experiment

In June I decided to eliminate my Internet connection. I expected this to be an easy transition. After all, I lived without immediate access to everything for many years. The challenge was unsuccessful. Right off the bat, I struggled with not being able to email people back immediately. I wasn't able to look up information that had been easy to access with just a Google search. I couldn't look up movie times, make travel plans, or pay bills.

In order to do what I needed to do, I went around town to log on to different networks. I thought this would be easy. It was anything but. Going to Starbucks was okay, there are enough of them around, but you have to buy a membership to access the network, plus you have to buy food and/or drink to be able to sit down at the tables. When I realized this was not cost effective, I started using free networks provided by the City. I would go the library and spend hours there doing what I needed to do. Those hours were costing me $1.25 every half hour for the parking garage. So much for free. I also tried the park where the connection was extremely unreliable. Add to all of this the time in travel and gas expense just to go pay my bills.

Then things got worse when in August I started back at school. The pain really began to set in. All of my courses are web based, so if I needed to listen to a lecture or download notes, I had to leave and go somewhere to do it. It was fine going to the library, but again, not cost effective. Finally, the first of October I contacted the phone company and they offered me a good deal for Internet connection. I took their deal faster than you can say HTML. Now here I am again, typing away, listening to music, and feeling like that non linked up life was a decade ago.

I do kind of miss going to coffee shops. I chatted with others that were there for the same reason. One guy asked me out, and all though I turned him down (obviously), it was kind of flattering. There is a social enjoyment that I do miss now that I can hibernate in my house again. I will admit that if I wasn't in school, I probably would have made it without. I suppose if I was working where I had a computer connected, that would also make it more doable.
It was an interesting experiment. If anything, it showed me how truly dependent I am on the information superhighway. I'm not so sure if that is such a good thing.