Life Without The Internet - 2.5 days felt like a LIFETIME!

Are you addicted to the internet????

As the years go by, it's obvious people are slowly getting more addicted to the internet. Think about it. I bet you can't even go out to dinner with friends without someone updating their Facebook with a “check in”. People announce the most mundane things on Facebook.... “Just got up”.... “Goin to bed”.... “Just burnt some toast...” I'm sure smart phones are a big element of this addiction phenomenon. We are provided instant internet access anytime and anywhere! That's one of the reasons I don't have a smart phone yet... I spend enough time online, I don't need to start bringing it with me places! I already spend enough  time on 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!

Source

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!?

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...

- 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.)

   

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?