Whatever happened to the days of dial up..

 ... the slowness, the buffering; the dialing be bop be bop…???

Okay so I fixed the lines to the Full House theme. But having two days with no internet got me thinking: in situations like natural disasters, if you have power but no internet, shouldn’t there be a way to use antiquated technology to your advantage?

I’ve been struggling to use my cellular (LTE) data since Wednesday morning. My phone can’t handle it; trying to use gmail or other service apps (Skype, chat, etc), it’s failing to sync. Even the podcasts aren’t connecting so great. With no internet access, my phone has already used 2gb of data. This isn’t a fun incident. When you’re used to watching what you do and limiting yourself, seeing that cellular data creep up is a slow punch in the gut. 

Everything we do on our smart devices (phones, tablets) use data no matter what. Trying to connect to cell towers during an outage like a natural disaster, everything throttles and slows down. Becomes resource hogs. 

So if there was an active telephone line somewhere or somehow, maybe that would be the key to getting in touch with the outside world. Especially for those who need to rely on Internet Service Providers like me with Hotwire. 

Hotwire is strictly wireless service. It’s supposed to be underground, fiber optics, easily maintained to not lose structure. But when they came in and used duct tape and bubble gum to hook us to preexisting (Comcast) cables, we are shit out of luck right now for an outside connection. Especially since headquarters got slammed by the hurricane. There’s no local place here to contact. Even to turn in the router for a new one, I think we would have to go to a free standing store front in Naples. Which got a lot of water this week. 

So cell data we use and watch what we do, we are. It’s a struggle to get apps open and it made me realize that may be I need to upgrade my phone to 5G to get a stronger signal. 

Which is totally against what a lot of people I know are saying about the connection. I can hear you guys in my head right now, starting to make your facial expressions and comments. I am looking at you, my holistic fam and friends. lol. I know, I know. I feel what you’re putting out. But what choice do I have? At least I can connect to something to tell you I’m safe and I’m okay. We can’t turn back anymore. There’s a reason why dumb (flip) phones are being fixed to have 5G accessibility. It’s now become a necessity. 

Technology has progressed too rapidly and we can’t keep up. We are drowning in what we can and can not do. Some creators of what we take for granted these days, say they didn’t intend on that product doing a 180 into something else. What was originally meant to help in one realm of usage, has flipped into something totally different and taken advantage of. If we could only have some of the old school things that worked for that time they were in to fall back on, I think it would be a great fall safe for when disasters strike or when you really need it. 

I mean; hell, here I am in the community gym writing this in apple notes as I use the stationary bike. I can’t get a solid cell connection to write this in my blog so it will come at a later date and time. But the fact remains; I am using a smart phone, notepad and able to type on it. While in an 80° sauna of a gym and working out. Our reliance on tech is too massive and we really should be cutting back to simpler means.

That’s not to say what I’m doing is totally horrendous because it’s not. It’s a great gift to be able to go anywhere and connect at any time. But you have to be able to have that connection. If it’s severed, what do you do? Nothing, because you can’t. 

Even when some girl came into the gym and automatically tried turning on the tv, I had to tell her that the internet is down so the tv won’t work. Hotwire is working on it. She said she doesn’t have internet in her house and I said we all don’t. Hotwire is trying to fix it. So she says okay, puts the remote down and puts her AirPods in her ears. People use the tv as a visual distraction as they work out. She was fine on the treadmill without the TV I’m sure. I’ve had them off while I’ve been in here. My podcasts aren’t syncing because of the lack of service so I’ve had that off. We make accommodations. 

So why can’t we get some sort of old school connection to be online? Something to help today’s world get back in business while the main conglomerates work on getting the state back to normal and back to what was before the storm hit?

I don’t know. Maybe I’m talking nonsense. I HAVE been in this heated room for over an hour..

Stay safe. Stay dry. Stay skinny

Cheers;