It's time for another Blog for class, Late again because I misplaced my syllabus that told me when it was due and what to write about, Seems normal for me, I need to be better about these things. This Blog is to be about a day without the Internet, and how I deal with it, and about my thoughts and reflections on the event.
My day without the Internet started Friday morning. My wife
and I were traveling to Ocean City Maryland for the weekend. I got up, and
started to get ready for my trip, my first instinct was to log on and check
email, I remembered I was spending the day without the Internet, and decided
not to check it. I also had an urge to check out my Facebook, and twitter
accounts. I declined to do both. I had a printed copy of my directions to my
hotel, and I remembered to get them from the printer. We set off, about an hour
after we had planned, nothing new there. We often joke about how that keeps
happening to us. I drove to OC, as we call Ocean City, and listened to the
radio in my can, normally I would use Pandora, or Spotify while driving, but
since I was doing without the Internet I decided that would be cheating. I got
to the hotel and learned it had a free Wi-Fi connection, I would not need that
today.
The first event of our convention
was to begin at 5:30, so we crossed the street to the convention center. Once
we got there my friend Ritchie asked if I had seen the Facebook post about Mike
Rowe (the dirty jobs guy). It seems he was there at our convention. I told him
I was on an Internet free day. So, he told me all about it. Cool. Mike is a
member of our barbershop hobby, his High School music teacher was a famous man
in our world. Mike rarely gets back for one of our conventions, and this doing
away with my Internet for the day was looking a bit more difficult as I
progressed. I already missed checking in to see what was
going on, and the news. During the first contest session, I kept my phone off
and in my pocket. That’s not so bad. When the contest was over my family asked
me to see where we could get something to eat at 11 pm, but without the Internet
I was unable to do it. We drove down the street until we found a burger place,
and stooped in for a late supper. The back to the hotel, and to sleep for the
night.
Saturday morning I decided to again
forgo Internet for the day. It was nerve wracking not being able to check in
and get the latest news. Funny in years past this was how my weekends used to
be. Now I am so addicted to my RSS feeds and Facebook/twitter and email, that I
missed being in touch. I was lonely, at first, then I got involved with the
events at the convention. My only slip was after the afternoon session, the
presenter (otherwise known as the MC) said that to determine who did a better
job presenting the contest to log on to twitter and cast my vote. OK, I pulled
out my phone, and tweeted that Tony had done a better job. Oops, I was doing
without the Internet today. Oh well, it that is my only slip I’m still good. Saturday
continued and my phone stayed in my pocket. I missed the news from is continued
until I arrived home, It’s about a 3 hour drive to OC, and I had a hard time
with the radio, but my wife understood I was conducting an experiment, and did
not complain. I put in a CD after a while and we listened to some good music.
We got home, unloaded the car, and took a nap. That nap lasted until Monday
morning. I got up, logged on and realized I had missed a lot of stuff. Big
wreck in Indy Car racing, drivers hospitalized. In NASCAR my favorite driver
had a really bad day. Wow, I didn’t used to follow a lot of that stuff,
politics, and sports, and similar stuff. I really felt out of touch.
It seemed worse to me after I got
back online than when I was locked out, I did not seem to care about it if I
didn’t hear it at the time. Once I got back in, I really noticed that I was
behind. Being connected really enhances my day. So much for being able to turn
it off. I bothered me more after the fact than it did while it was happening.
Interesting!
