Lost in the mountains without Wi-Fi
Hi, my name is Kathy, and I’m an Internet addict.
I came to this realization on my recent vacation to the
mountains, where people really shouldn’t be allowed to bring
electronics, but instead should be out hiking, boating,
birdwatching, and communing with nature in general.
Lost in the mountains without Wi-Fi
Hi, my name is Kathy, and I’m an Internet addict.
I came to this realization on my recent vacation to the mountains, where people really shouldn’t be allowed to bring electronics, but instead should be out hiking, boating, birdwatching, and communing with nature in general.
Instead, I spent several precious hours cursing the Wi-Fi reception at several locations in and around Pinecrest, Pop. 232.
For those of you who don’t know what Wi-Fi is, I’ll explain briefly. Wi-Fi (an abbreviation of the term wireless fidelity) is a magical thing that allows your computer to connect to the Internet without wires. Don’t ask me how it works, because I really have no idea.
All I know is that for those of us who use Smartphones, iPods, laptop or tablet computers, Wi-Fi is a wonderful thing.
That is, when the darn thing works.
I go to a family camp every year which, for some reason, decided to offer free Wi-Fi to campers a few years ago. At the time, I thought it was a pretty dreadful thing to do. After all, we’re not supposed to be huddled around our mobile devices when we are on vacation.
However, being as I’m self-employed, and therefore am never really on vacation, I thought it would be prudent to start taking a laptop with me on my annual trek. That way, I could keep up with my email, and not return to find several thousand things waiting for me in my inbox.
Although there is that strange incongruity of having the electronics humming in a humble tent cabin, as carpenter ants and large spiders crawl across your sleeping bag.
At any rate, I had gotten used to the idea of having Wi-Fi in camp, so that didn’t bother me all that much. But this time around, I found that it wasn’t so great.
Unbeknownst to me and everyone else, the camp changed to some kind of different wireless configuration that didn’t work all that well. If there were too many people trying to access the Internet at the same time, the Wi-Fi protested and kicked some off.
Also, the Wi-Fi didn’t seem to like me in particular, because I couldn’t connect most of the time.
Even going down the road a few miles and buying a Coke at a diner (which was advertising free Wi-Fi for customers) came to no avail. “Oh, I guess it’s not working today,” was what the waitress had to say to me.
Bummer.
Now you have to understand that it wasn’t exactly an emergency for me, this lack of Wi-Fi. It wasn’t like I was losing out on multi-million-dollar business deals or anything like that. I simply wanted to do a little online banking transaction (transferring money to my son, who desperately needed it) and check my email. Was that too much to ask?
Apparently it was.
And I began to realize that it’s getting harder and harder for me to relinquish Internet access. I am so used to getting up in the morning and turning on the computer that I am at a loss if I don’t have it around.
Great, another addiction to deal with.
However, at this point in the story, I realized that my Internet habit was kind of ridiculous, so I took pains to ignore my laptop and actually have a vacation, which is what I should have been doing anyway.
So, kids, just to reiterate: Internet access is not a God-given right, even if you think it should be. Put down your mobile device, and step out into the sunshine. It’s summertime.
