Thursday, September 5, 2013

Back from an Internet "Fast"

It isn't the season of the year for fasting, but I did it nevertheless. What happened? Somehow Comcast's overhead cable to my house was pulled down and broken. I'd always thought it was very low, crossing the street with a decided sag as it did. But one day in late May, I was sitting at my desk and heard a loud "thunk" right outside the window. When I went out to have a look, I found a long length of black cable lying on the lawn, and a section of rain gutter was loose, where I presume the line had been attached. And, of course, I had no internet service.

I practically had an anxiety attack - "Oh, no... no internet! What ever will I do!" - and I realized that my dependence on this mode of communication and information retrieval had become... excessive. So, instead of calling Comcast for immediate repairs... I let it stay broken. It was weird at first, but not unpleasant. I could still use my Blackberry for e-mail, Facebook, and some other limited internet access, such as weather updates and internet purchases. I took my Chromebook to the local McDonald's and library a few times, both of which have free wi-fi. I upgraded my phone plan from 300 minutes/month to the 1,200 minutes/month plan, at an extra $10.00, since I could no longer use Skype on my computer.

But I read a lot more. And listened to the radio, discovering in the process that, happily, I can now get good reception from WHYY, our local NPR (National Public Radio) station, with its excellent and varied programming. I really didn't miss video much, and cancelled my Hulu and Netflix subscriptions. I don't think I'll go back to these, either. Amazon Prime has so much free video available that I won't run out of things to watch any time in the next decade, and they seem to be increasing their holdings in the BBC and ETV (Educational TV) categories.

Last week I finally decided it was time, and summoned Comcast to reattach my cable line. Which a very nice technician did late one afternoon. So what did I do first? Honestly, I cannot remember! It's easier now to check my e-mail and to watch videos. It's far speedier to use my cloud-stored "stuff", such as the spreadsheets that keep track of my finances and my tutoring student attendance hours. I have ordered a quilt on sale from Sears that I couldn't have accessed without a good internet connection - still waiting for it to arrive at my local Sears store so I can pick it up with no shipping fees.

All in all, I think it was a good experiment. I feel quite confident now that I could do just fine without my home internet service. It's a wonderful convenience, don't get me wrong, but I've discovered that it is not really essential.

Next post... what happened to my Windows laptop when it went online after being offline for three months. Not pretty.  And what I learned.

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