When Internet is Lost...

Over the last week, I've come to experience life before the Internet. I don't like it.

I live in an apartment complex/campus that doubles as an educational complex, so the information technology needs are a little different than most residences. Due to the increasing volume of users on the campus, the IT department has become overloaded, and the Internet essentially slowed to a crawl over the course of a few months. That came to a head last week, when the IT group decided to add another T1 line to the campus, though that required cutting off the Internet completely on the campus. That meant that my apartment couldn't reach the Internet, which is frustrating when you don't have any control over the decisions that are made to reach that point.

Since I don't work, I thought last week would be my chance to get ahead on the work of the semester, since I'm taking 7 classes. However, without Internet, I got no work done. I couldn't do my assignment for this class over the weekend, and I couldn't do any research for anything, other than reading in textbooks.

Why has the Internet become such an important part of my life? How come I was bored and useless for a week because the Internet in my home was out?

I love the things that the Internet can bring to the table. However, like the article we read for this week, it can be the best of times and the worst of times. Would we in society be able to function if the Internet went down worldwide? I don't think so. It just wouldn't be possible. What about if power went down everywhere? No traffic lights, no MARTA, no hot water.

Losing the Internet for a week isn't the worst thing in the world. I could go down to a coffee shop a mile from my apartment and do what I needed to do. Granted, I couldn't sit there for the amount of time required to do research for school, but I could go there long enough to check some e-mail from time and time and make sure the world wasn't falling apart around me without my notice, since I can't check CNN.com.

I'm here today, because the world wasn't falling apart, but I'll always regret my week without the Internet.