h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My internet connection went out about ten minutes ago. It's a sign of how much I've (and I guess, we've, as a society) become dependent on it because my first reaction was

I think I could no more live without it now, at least in my current lifestyle, than I could walk out of the front door naked. If I was living in a different place and doing different things, like farming a smallholding and raising my own food, I'd be too busy and have too many other interests to spend as much time on teh interwebs as I do, but the way I live right, well, I pretty much live on it.

And I have the nerve to criticise teenagers (and older) who can't put their phones down

mobile phones is just ours internets on the outside

Ooooh, that's deep

(Damnit! h2g2 just gave me the temp-boot deleting my response.)

i never criticise people for spending a lot of time on the internet, I use it for lots of things apart from social media, but that's a big part of it too.

I was at the Shakespeare Festival in summer, and on my way out after a really rather performance of Love's Labours Lost, I consulted my phone to see when the ISS was passing over (about 10 minutes after th e performance as it happened) and an older (than me) lady was harumphing about how if we can't stay off our phones how will the youth. So I told her what I was looking for and about 6 people behind us said "oh wow, great, let's all look"

so we stood outside with a glass of wine talking about space and Shakespeare and watched a really good pass - and none of us would have done that (looked up or spoke to complete strangers like that) with out mobile internet. So

I've been guilty myself of harrumphing at youngsters who were on a bus, and instead of talking to each other they were busy texting. Turned out they were texting each other cos they were deaf. I figured that out when I saw a few of them sign each other.

On my days off, when I'm not cooking or shopping for things to cook with, occasionally doing a bit of housework (and very occasionally actually going out with friends), I'm on't internet somehow, either here, on Twotter, checking emails or talking to people through Gmail chat, as well as following the news and looking for more food blogs. I couldn't watch all that British telly without it either.

Anyways... What I was going to say earlier as that when I arrived home after work yesterday, I was greeted by my father alerting me that the internet was down again and they'd been without phone service as well most of the morning.

I unplugged and rebooted the modem, always the first move. I also went outside in the rain and gave the main cable connection into the house a thorough squidgle (squeeze and a wiggle) as my father had tore it loose Friday while mowing. Phone service was returned as was the internet. Phew!


I have a greater dread of the internet going down than just mere withdrawal (although that is more significant than I like to admit). The bigger dread comes from the toxic interaction between my father and I when something technical is on the fritz. It's a mine field of angst. He often relies on me to fix technical issues like the internet or the satellite/TV system. And often I am able to, but I'm not the technical expert he seems to think I am. He gets frustrated at himself vs. technology that he used to master and then he gets frustrated at me when I or grumble as I know that I'm not a technical expert and I'm just doing simple things that sometimes work and if they don't and I can't fix it he seems to think that I'm just giving up or that I don't want to help him. And then we start getting snippy and rude to each other. We don't want to, but we do. (I think some of it goes back to patterns that developed related to my moodiness and depression of previous years.)

I really hate it when the internet goes down.

That brought back a few deeply-buried memories for me too.

Moi? deep? *faints*

My inlaws think I'm some sort of technical guru, too, which I hate. I'm able to help with basic things (mostly speeding things back up by uninstalling programs that they've accidently installed, or getting the warning windows to go away by turning the firewall back on). If I could just go over, do the job, then come back home--or get them to bring the laptop over here, instead--it'd be better. But even my not being able to update Flash (complete failure on whomever's computer I try it on, mine as well as theirs--seriously, I follow the directions to the letter, but still nothing!) has not dissuaded them.