It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The birds were chirping, sparkling rays of the sun shining through the windows with a glimmer of hope for the nation. The day was in fact, Malaysia's 13th general election. (Read more here). I woke up, got ready for church, and scampered off downstairs to get a better Wi-Fi signal for my phone. Eager to digest all election related comments and posts, I toggled on Wi-Fi and opened up Facebook. However, the familiar news feed was replaced by a message popup, saying "No Internet Connection". I shrugged, and checked the modem and found that the last two LED indicators were not lit. A problem with the telephone line, I thought and subsequently ignored, thinking it was only a temporary issue.
However, the problem persisted throughout the day. It was a real pain in the ass, not having any connections with the outside world. No updates to the election, no Facebook, Google, the list goes on. The only consolation I had was my sister's 4G dongle. But once she went back to KL, I had virtually no access to the Internet. But I guess that was a good thing to have the temptations of the Internet far away, concealed in the boundaries of the broken telephone line, when I was having my mid year exams. However, once the exams were over, reality began to seep in. I felt bored, empty, and void of all information and connections to the outside world. My favourite basketball team was slowly fading away, the all important Google I/O 2013 for the average tech enthusiast like me was out of reach.
My mum and dad was also affected as the once healthy access to the web at home was gone. My dad couldn't stream the oldies and the endless political news on his computer, and my mum couldn't watch videos of my (baby) niece. After almost 2 weeks with the absence of the web, my dad's constant complaints to our ISP (Internet Service Provider) didn't really improve the situation. The inefficiency of our ISP really knows no boundaries. It was really enraging especially when they are one of Asia's leading communications companies and said they didn't have enough cables to fix the problem.
Consequently, most of my Internet access was done in the neighbourhood McDonalds'. The precious little time I had after consuming dinner there, was used entirely used for the web. And I'm not talking about videos about kittens and 'Charlie bit my finger 'on the web. I went straight for the productivity stuff, email, news, the lot. It dawned on me that I took the Internet for granted from the get-go.
Before continuing, I think it would be a great idea to give a little of an insight to my life on the Internet. Youtube videos were a major part of it, as it occupied most of the time I spent on the Internet. I guess it would be appropriate to call to me a fanatic Youtube enthusiast. I would literally spend a few hours everyday just to watch Youtube videos that were quite frankly, nonsensical. The worse thing is that I would watch them repeatedly as if I did not watch them in the first place. Apart from Youtube videos, I would search the web here and there once in a blue moon for information for school projects while making updates to my blog once every few days. Besides from blogging, I practically used the Internet predominantly for entertainment purposes, as a means to succour the stress from everyday life as a student. As a result, the times that I would assign to things that were productive were scarce. While that is not considered as anything wrong, I felt that somehow I was not using the Internet to its full potential.
After the 'incident' that left my home Internet-less, I no longer had access to Youtube videos. 'Googling 'became a meaningless verb, and Facebook was just a book with faces in it. The inconveniences brought out by the loss of the internet had a large impact on my life and it had made me realize it's importance. The Internet is a powerful tool, a means to further mankind's progress to greater heights. It connects people from around the world, brings them closer even though separated by thousands of miles. It is a platform to express one's opinions, thoughts and ideas to world, and at the same time, experience the thoughts of others. It is a vast vault of diverse resources which can provide one an insight to the world's happenings and information which can be used to improve oneself.
In the nearby McDonald's restaurant, as I went through my email and technology news with little time to spare. I pondered about my life on the Internet, and the ways I utilised it. I thought about the time where I wasted the Internet on nonsensical videos and subsequently reprimanded myself for not using the Internet to its full potential, to do more productive things. From that point onwards, I pledged to spend more of my time for productive purposes, to utilize the Internet more to it's potential, to experience the depths of the Internet, and to use it as a means to further improve myself to ensure my a more fulfilling existence on this planet.
The usefulness and the benefits of the Internet are aplenty, but it can be forgotten and be took for granted sometimes. This 'incident' has been a wake-up call for me, and it's possibly what I needed the most.
All in all, this massive inconvenience lasted me 3 whole weeks. It was a painful experience but equally beneficial nonetheless. Now I have my internet connection back in my home, I guess 'Charlie bit my finger ' has to wait until other more important things are done.
Image credit: www.dreamstime.com
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