From AOL to The Backyard: Addiction

My first internet experience was when I was in grade school, and my dad brought home our family's very first Home Computer. It was a Mac. The Screen was maybe 10 inches, and it was about the size of those double bag boxes of cereal from costco. It had a CD-rom drive that had an external case that you had to put the CD's into before the computer, unlike the trays that eject and slide back in today. It was a lot of fun, I could play oregon trail on it, and mario teaches typing. But the real attraction was AOL. The "internet" I don't remember it being much like the internet I imagine today. Everything was broken up into groups, and you searched by keyword, and maybe it was due to my youth, but there wasn't all that much worth remembering.

Fast forward more than 15 years and I'd say I've had my fair share of internet evolution. I've gone from Dial up to High speed to High speed wireless. I used to love hearing those squeeks and ringtones everytime we had to dial up onto the internet. The only downside of all those bells and whistles was the fact that if anyone needed to make a call or someone was trying to call us the phone was tied up. Those were funny times because we would only have a certain amount of time because we couldn't tie up the phone all night. It was really bad if anyone ever accidentally left the internet on without knowing, and you wouldn't know until you picked up the phone to make a call and you'd get the loud squeeling blowing out your eardrums. Some people (never me) got an additional phone line just for the computer, and other's bought programs that would show you on your computer if someone was trying to call.

Oh how we've progressed... Now-a-days we have high-speed DSL or Cable or T1 or what have you. It's almost as if we can't go without this blessed information highway. There's Wi-fi in coffee shops, Free internet at Hotels, Barnes and Noble, Libraries, restaurants, we get internet on our phones, and we even are offered free internet at McDonalds. Now you can throw the kids into the play pen, open up your laptop, and Web surf away. All that said, I too have grown a fondness to the internet, and I'm realizing it's maybe even more....

Maybe you all can relate to this: I think I'm addicted to the internet. Addiction was described, online of all places, as an illness where a person seeks and consumes a substance. Here's where I'm going on this... if I can't find the internet I go looking for it. I don't feel good enough if it's not available. I'd automatically choose a hotel room that offers internet over one that doesn't. The same with coffee shops. What good is a coffee shop if it doesn't have internet. I pay money to have it on my phone. I've payed money to have it in my house. I'm addicted to the internet. She's grabbed a hold of me and she's not letting go....

To wrap it all up, I've realized this due to my present situation. In order to type this very blog I had to search my house for a wireless signal. We don't have the internet at our house presently and so if I want my fix I have to crawl around like a starving dog looking for scraps... and scraps I have found. The good news is after 5-10 minutes of earnest seeking I've found a hot spot. Yes that's right. Full bars. Full to the top. No bad signal here... The Bad NEWS: it's outside on the back porch. Currently at 12:30 in the afternoon it's not too bad. The sun's out, and the air is cool. Let's just hope the weather stays on my side and allows this addiction of mine to go on a little longer.

If you feel addicted, let me know. We can start a support group.