Last week I got connected. I’ve recently moved to a new place and I’ve been without ADSL Internet for over a month. It’s been pretty challenging. I know what you are thinking. First world problem, yes I won’t deny that. But it has left me with a lot of thoughts on whether I have IAD, yes there is a term “Internet Addiction Disorder.”

Due to my recent predicament I had a conversation with a work colleague about the time when Internet was non-existent in households. We were reliant on getting information from encyclopaedias’, the newspaper, through conversation! This got me thinking in most cases gen Y and Z are never ever going to ever experience a world that is not connected to the Internet. They will never get the satisfaction of watching a series of Game of Thrones without finding out who gets killed off before actually viewing it.

Is this a good thing? Living in the western world, can we really disconnect from the Internet? We can try, but how long can we do this for? We now have Internet on planes and buses, my council is even trialling a free community Wi-Fi connection in public areas down our main street. There really is no escape from the Internet.

There is a view that being connected is making us an anti social society. Is this a misconception? Or am I just telling myself I am fine. I admit I am constantly on the internet, but I am also very social, I work in an office, I go out with friends four nights a week, I exercise, I read, but still when it comes down to it the internet plays a big part in all these aspect of organising my social life.

I am going to give you an example of my reliance. This is how my Monday morning played out. My alarm went off at 6 am. I slept in to 6:10am, I picked up my phone and checked it for messages. It was a very quiet morning: One Whatsapp message from overseas, an assortment of emails involving personal, work and marketing campaigns from companies I signed up for, One new follower on Instagram and two new notifications on Facebook.

I then got out of bed and put on a Spotify playlist, jumped into the shower and went about my morning routine. I then left my apartment, put on another Spotify playlist on my phone and proceeded to wait at the train stop. In this time I received another Whatsapp message followed by another Facebook notification.

I arrived at Southern Cross station went to get a coffee. While waiting I decided to open Facebook and preceded to read a blog I found interesting. Coffee now in hand I then continued on my journey to the office. I sat down logged in to my computer and opened my work emails and responded to them. I then opened Google Chrome checked the train timetable for the evening. I then got a personal email in regards to confirmation of a venue for an upcoming event. I needed to pay a deposit; I jumped online to pay the bill. I updated my Facebook invite with more event details. I put on another Spotify playlist and began writing this blog. This is all before Midday. Scary right? All of my morning would have been completely different 15 years ago. It would have taken me a few days to get all of this done without Internet.

As much as I would like to say the Internet is bad for us. I can only say welcome to our future. To be honest with you, I’m grateful I was able to experience life without a reliance on checking my phone for messages and notifications first thing in the morning. But my month struggle without Internet at home has made me realise being connected makes me feel incredibly happy and settled in life. I guess there’s no turning back now.

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