Arriving back from Christmas Holidays the first thing I had to do ,as always, was to call back home and report the safe arrival. But to my dismay my phone line was dead. Shock- horror! But never fear, I thought, use the Skype account to call the UK landline. Shock- horror again! No internet connection to be had. A quick call to my services provider at fifteen minutes before ten at night using my mobile phone eases my mood; ‘all you need to do is turn off your modem and turn it on again- wait fifteen minutes and then try the services again Sir’ said the friendly and helpful voice. I did exactly as instructed. Fifteen minutes later I tried to connect... but wouldn’t you know it, dead as a Dodo! I called back and was greeted with a recorded message ‘Welcome- our offices are now closed, please call between the hours of 8a.m. and 10p.m. Monday to Friday for assistance.’ At this point I simply sat back and accepted that the clever little shit at the technical assistance desk was just putting me off for the fifteen minutes he had left until clocking out.
The next day was a bank holiday and, once again, no help from the closed offices. The saga of the mysterious disconnection went on for eight days and was only resolved due to a friend putting pressure on a manager within the company. To be honest it was absolute hell living without email, internet or telephone. Did I have withdrawal symptoms? Does such a thing actually exist? The hardest thing to deal with was the unavailability of internet and email which made me think about the way we lived before all the tech stuff. We are all so dependent on the marvels of technology which adorn our homes all around the world. Search: “internet withdrawal symptoms”...
The following is a snippet of some of the 8.9million suggested sites.
It is officially recognised that users being cut off from the internet for an extended period of time felt frustrated, anxious, disconnected and also experienced a feeling of loss. These symptoms were felt after a period of five days without internet. The inability to connect with friends, make purchases, check sports results and pay bills online were cited as the main reasons for the feelings experienced.
The past ten years has irreversibly changed the lives of millions of people all around the world and the interesting fact to note about all of this is that we don’t realise how much we are all dependent on the internet...until of course this integral tool of our lives is taken away.
What would happen if the servers, which provide us with this lifeline, suddenly packed up? Would we all shrivel up and die? I think not but life would be severely disrupted to say the least...let’s hope that never, ever, ever happens!
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