Fifty years ago, if you told someone that they would be able to work from home and perform all the same functions that they would in an office, would they have believed you? Probably not. Or that anybody would be able to travel anywhere and talk to anyone on a mobile phone? Yeah, cuckoo. But having been alive for the last 31 years and seeing how much things have evolved, I'm glad that I have the option to work from home or anywhere that I can get an internet connection and not feel disconnected from the office. On the downside, with technology always evolving and people able to log in from anywhere with wireless devices (ie- the "Crack" berry), you're also easily accessible...maybe Big Brother is not so far away after all, if it's not here already.
Having moved into our new home, my husband and I were so excited about getting Verizon FiOS installed for the house. For those that may not be familiar, FiOS is Fiber Optic Services. Your phone service, cable TV and internet access travel on one fiber optic line to provide these services throughout your home (whereas without FiOS, that's three separate services and three separate lines wired to your home). Some of our friends signed up for it and they had no complaints. Of course we sign up and boy, do I have a load of complaints. The internet is faster than regular internet- there's no doubt about that. But when one thing goes down, seems like everything goes down.
I'm working from home today (furniture delivery and family coming into town). I woke up early to log into my work account. At about 7:40am, I got no internet connection. I thought it was my computer so I restarted a couple of times. Then I decided to hook up to the router directly using the LAN coax instead of wireless. Nothing. I ran to my husband's office and started his computer. No internet either. At 8:15am, I had no internet, no phone....but hey, I did have TV! I restarted the router...multiple times. And I waited....and then I waited some more. I called our FiOS Service person - he's "new" to FiOS and he had meetings in the morning so he had to call me back (GREAT!). At about 8:45am, I decided to start cooking dinner to calm my nerves. It helped. At about 9:00am, I decided to restart the router one more time. Twenty minutes later, while finishing up with dinner and washing the dishes, I saw that the 'internet' light on the router finally lit up. I run to my computer and restarted it. The internet is working....HALLELUJAH!
I have been successfully logged into work for the past 1.5 hours. I'm almost afraid to leave the computer for fear that I'll be cut off again. So while I had phone and internet access, I contacted my coworkers and let them know what had to get done in the event I was cut off from internet again this afternoon. I haven't even gone to the bathroom yet and I've had to go since 9am. I'm scared - scared to be left in the dark again.
You don't realize how dependent you are on modern technology until it fails. Thank goodness my cell phone was working....darn you, FiOS! (Don't fail on me now!)
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It's so true. I think of when our e-mail or internet goes down at work, we are all wandering around aimlessly wondering what to do with ourselves. It's pathetic. I don't realize how often I toggle back and forth between websites until the rug is ripped out from under me.
ReplyDeleteI also think getting wireless at home was very dangerous. Now I am chained to that computer ALL THE TIME. In front of the t.v. - how many things do I need to have going on at once? At least with my desk top, I could compartmentalize (computer time, t.v. time, reading time, dinner, etc.). Now they are all blended into one.