Internet dependency, withdrawal symptoms
Because we do real estate we have high speed internet service. It was awful when we had dial-up, so slow that you would need a newspaper or magazine, that is if the connection didn’t drop us first. But now, when something goes wrong and we go off the air it’s harder.
We’ve become so dependent you see. No longer patient with upload time or redialing delays, I can feel the hair behind my neck start to rise and my eyes begin to narrow. The support people are trained for this I think. By the time I have gone through “press one if . . . “ to the fourth or fifth level of penetration to where the REAL tech humans live I’m well, somewhat less tolerant than when I first left the air.
We lost contact on Friday. So the first call went something like; don’t worry sir, you seem to have some bad weather out there (it was overcast). Just give it a few hours. She said she had radar.
No signal Saturday of course so call #2 yielded; oh, didn’t they tell you? You have an emergency dial-up allowance. Let me set it up for you. And moments later I’m online. Slow, but alive.
Next day my password quits working. Call #3 (25 minutes, with 10 or maybe it was 20 on hold) ended with I’ll send this up to the office. “Office”? What do you mean office?! Aren’t I calling the office?!?
Later that same day call #4; the reason you can’t get online is that you used up your ten hour dial-up allowance, sir. You get 10 hours a month it turns out and, not knowing that, I had not disconnected often enough.
I’m on valium now and visitors are restricted. For their own safety.
Because we do real estate we have high speed internet service. It was awful when we had dial-up, so slow that you would need a newspaper or magazine, that is if the connection didn’t drop us first. But now, when something goes wrong and we go off the air it’s harder.
We’ve become so dependent you see. No longer patient with upload time or redialing delays, I can feel the hair behind my neck start to rise and my eyes begin to narrow. The support people are trained for this I think. By the time I have gone through “press one if . . . “ to the fourth or fifth level of penetration to where the REAL tech humans live I’m well, somewhat less tolerant than when I first left the air.
We lost contact on Friday. So the first call went something like; don’t worry sir, you seem to have some bad weather out there (it was overcast). Just give it a few hours. She said she had radar.
No signal Saturday of course so call #2 yielded; oh, didn’t they tell you? You have an emergency dial-up allowance. Let me set it up for you. And moments later I’m online. Slow, but alive.
Next day my password quits working. Call #3 (25 minutes, with 10 or maybe it was 20 on hold) ended with I’ll send this up to the office. “Office”? What do you mean office?! Aren’t I calling the office?!?
Later that same day call #4; the reason you can’t get online is that you used up your ten hour dial-up allowance, sir. You get 10 hours a month it turns out and, not knowing that, I had not disconnected often enough.
I’m on valium now and visitors are restricted. For their own safety.
1 comment:
Oh boy do I know what you mean! The internet has really come a big part of our lives, hasn't it? Especially if you own a small business. It's not a luxury for me, it's how I conduct my business. Well, glad you got it working again. Great blog by the way!
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