Are you addicted to the internet????
I knew I relied heavily on the internet, but things really became ABUNDANTLY clear a few days ago. We were on a 3 day vacation in which we had NO INTERNET ACCESS. (Both places we were staying had wireless internet access but the wireless card in my laptop is broke so... no internet!)It was
tough- especially since I didn't know I wouldn't have access and
could not prepare myself mentally for the change of lifestyle.
Messing around on the internet is the
first thing I do in the morning and it's the last
thing I do to unwind before bed. I blog and I'm active on Facebook,
so obviously I spend a couple hours online each day. Even during the
school year, it is a key part of lesson planning and a lot of my
music classes incorporate websites, music, and Youtube videos.
Teachers communicate with each other via email. We communicate with
parents via email. Grades are done online. The internet is how I get
my news, entertainment, weather, directions, phone numbers...
everything! It's my main source of information.
Boy did I wish I had a smart phone on this vacation. But I survived almost three days without checking my daily blogs, catching up on Facebook, visiting message boards, and checking the news. It. was. rough. I felt very disconnected from the outside world! I was so worried I'd miss the naming of the royal baby when I was supposed to be having fun and relaxing on vacation!
Here's how it all went down...
Wednesday:
When we arrived in our room in Atlantic
City and realized we had no internet access, my husband and I looked
at each other with fallen faces that clearly asked, “Now what!?”
It was as if our whole vacation was ruined. Never mind the fact that
there were a ton of fun things to do in our hotel and down on the
boardwalk. We didn't have internet! It was a disaster! We would just
have to do without. We figured out where to go for dinner by walking
around, not by looking it up online. For the weather, we checked the
weather channel. I felt disconnected and was pretty worried about how I was going to post my blog the next day...
Thursday:
I just HAD to post my blog Thursday
morning, so I went to the hotel's business center and spent 50 cents
per minute so I could deliver my blog about planks. I had to swipe my credit card into the computer to do this, and now some third party is probably stealing my identity. You're welcome. Hope you liked the plank post.
Next, we headed to Ocean City, New
Jersey for one night. This is where our GPS came in very handy. We
needed to find a Dunkin' Donuts, a good place for ice cream and a
pharmacy... the GPS took care of that for us, thanks goodness!
Otherwise, we would have had to use the “drive around” method as
our condo did not have a phone book.
Seriously, without a phone book or the internet, how were we supposed to figure these things out!?
Seriously, without a phone book or the internet, how were we supposed to figure these things out!?
Friday:
How was I to post my blog this
morning!? There's no "internet cafe" or what have you in OCNJ. I was panicked. Luckily, I have a younger brother who is
pretty computer savvy, so I sent him a 2,000 character text message
with detailed instructions on how to publish my blog and share it on
Facebook. I owe him one!
When we got home Friday night to our lovely home with internet access, it was like the world was right again. I caught up on the weather, the blogs I read, message boards, my news sites... Once I was completely caught up (around 2am) I breathed a sigh of relief. While I didn't miss anything earth shattering by being unplugged for a few days, I did miss somethings...
When we got home Friday night to our lovely home with internet access, it was like the world was right again. I caught up on the weather, the blogs I read, message boards, my news sites... Once I was completely caught up (around 2am) I breathed a sigh of relief. While I didn't miss anything earth shattering by being unplugged for a few days, I did miss somethings...
- Juror B-29 spoke out about the
Zimmerman trial verdict.
- Kaitlin got evicted from the Big Brother house. (She deserved it.)
- Anthony Weiner continued being a
weiner. (He keeps getting slimier and slimier!!)
- The Royal Baby was named George. (Not a fan.)
- The Royal Baby was named George. (Not a fan.)
To sum it all up....
What is the moral to my story? I'm not sure there is one, other than I found out that I thoroughly rely on the internet for many, many, many things in my life. I don't think this is totally a bad thing. I thrive on information, and I love googling answers to all the random questions I think up during the day. I do check a lot of news sites, and do all my trip planning online.
Yet I get sucked into time wasters... like Facebook and message boards. I should really do something productive instead... like weed and clean out the shed.
Are you addicted to the internet?
Could you survive 3 days being unplugged?
Am I the only person who doesn't have a smart phone?
I, too, would be lost without the internet, even on vacay. (I take my laptop.) On our last trip to Brimfield, we used it to find restaurants, the hours of certain antique shops, the daily weather. (A must, if you're going to an outdoor flea market.) We needed MapQuest to find a back way out of there to avoid the traffic jams, and to find an alternate route home. I also need to check my business pages. As far as a smart phone, never! My tracfone costs me 100.00/year, and I never go over my minutes.
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