Sunday, October 14, 2007

Addicted to Connectivity

Well, our internet connection is down. It's been pretty lame all week, but after running some diagnosis tests over the phone with the frazzled Comcast lady today, our modem was pronounced dead. The brand new modem that TPM (our management group) finally bought us after living without our own modem for the whole summer and part of this semester. And pirating the mysterious "linksys" open network has proved less than successful, although the signal is unfrequented enough tonight for me to write this post. Roar, I just hate when things don't work. I didn't have anything desperately needing my attention online tonight, but I panic when I don't have an internet connection when I'm expecting to have one.

I know it's pathetic, but I get that way when I leave my cell phone at home, too. Just knowing that I'm supposed to be connected to the technological world but I'm not freaks me out. How bothersome. My thoughts turn to Thoreau in the woods. Simplify, simplify, simplify...

Of course, Thoreau only pulled off the whole Walden thing because Emerson and some existentialist buddies gave him land and helped him build his house and made sure he didn't starve. So civilization is somewhat necessary. It's just too bad that our civilization comes with so many screens, plugs, and flashing lights.

Can I just say, I love eating brownies and singing along to Regina Spektor with my roommate in our living room at 11:30 on a Sunday night, long after our responsible roommates have gone to bed. Shout out to ya, Sim.

4 comments:

Failon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Failon said...

I remember going a week without internet when I first moved up to Salt Lake. Awful, but I got a lot of things done. I didn't die like I thought I would...

An anecdote:

I was a mad tech junkie, back in the day. Having a cell phone was cool and therefore I couldn't not use it at every opportunity, even when I didn't actually want to talk to whomever was calling me.

It was so incredibly liberating when I finally realized that I didn't actually have to answer.
It was like the chains that held me to this crag, leaving my abdomen bare for some carnivorous bird to disembowel had been cut loose.

I was free to ignore people. And I loved it. :D

Hilary said...

Thank you, Prometheus. That was intensely moving. :P

Anonymous said...

Did you have a funeral for your modem? ;)

My heart yearns to pull the plug like Thoreau (at least the theoretical, platonic ideal Thoreau) and get back to nature and the old ways. But like you say, that's pretty much impossible these days. A pity. And yet there have to be ways to pull it off, or to at least find some happy medium. (The depressed ones don't usually give good séances. :P)