I knew that Monday was going to be a bad day when I turned on my computer and tried to connect to the Internet. I opened my browser and got a white screen with a message that the page could not be found. I went to call support to get the problem fixed so that I could go to work and the phone was dead because my work phone relies on a connection to the world wide web. I pulled out my cell phone and called support. It sounded like my connection to India was not good so I hung up and called again. I finally got a good connection and made an appointment for that afternoon between one and three. The hours between the phone call at 6am and the appointment helped me see just how dependant I had become on having an Internet connection.For the last five years I have been able to telecommute. I have the convenience of working in my home and still being as productive as if I were in my office. I'm able to attend a meeting with participants from three continents. Although I can't see the faces of the people in the meeting, I can look their pictures up in the corporate phone book on-line. Without a connection, I can't do these things.
Betty wanted to visit someone. She wasn't sure just where the address was. She came to her computer to look up the address on Map Quest. It's so easy to find directions. A friend showed me how to use Google Street view. We could even move to a map that showed a 3D image of the addresses. It's convenient and it's fun, but without a connection to the Web, I have to rely on the old fashioned methods.
Email is so quick. I can send a message to someone and have a response in minutes. Sometimes we see things that are funny or entertaining on YouTube. We can store our pictures and order prints from Walgreen's or some other store to pick up later in the day.
Several times a day, my sweetheart checks on our balances. We no longer have to pay postage to pay a bill. We don't have to buy a newspaper to catch up on the news or see what's playing at the movies. We can do it online as long as there's a connection.
I have really learned to enjoy staying in touch with family and friends through blogs. Since I opened a blog for my parent's family, there have been over 2,000 transactions. A year at a time had passed with fewer than 12 letters from family members before. I am getting to know family members in a way that I was not able to before. Will I lose touch with my family without an Internet connection?
I love genealogy or family history as it is now called. I remember a time when it took years to submit genealogy work. It now takes seconds as long as I have a link to my network.
For a week now, I have had a really good high speed connection. I'm grateful.
5 comments:
Even with the technology, family history only gets done if someone works on it, e-mails only get read if someone writes them, and even though the gadgets make communications quick, they only happen if someone initiates them.
It is nice to have access to people on a relatively quick media.
We still have our decades of hardcopy letters we created when we sent out our family letters. They have come in handy a few times when we went back and looked. Journals are only available if somebody writes them.
You are absolutely correct. I have a box of letters that I need to go through and digitize. I have a file cabinet full of genealogical records that need to be worked on, and I have four or five empty journals that are not going to do anybody any good in the state they are in.
Somewhere, I have a letter that Dad sent me years ago. I would like to find it and read it and share it with my family. I keep thinking about the letter I need to get written to Robert. I am not good at getting much more than that done. I need to do it.
I have been really grateful for your faithfulness at writing consistently. I miss you and your family. I am glad to have this connection with you.
I have a bunch of histories that I intend to keep adding to the Dunn site. I don't have pictures to go with them. We'll have to rely on our imaginations. I have enjoyed doing the histories. I had hoped that there would be a better response to them.
The history I really need to work on is my own. I don't know if I can find the courage to tell my story.
Kent, I have really appreciated the gratitude posts. It has made me think of the things that I am grateful for. All of the things that you have said,I cansign my name to.
The Lord says how he is not happy with his people if they are not grateful. I understand that feeling.
How neat it is to be with grateful people.
I too am grateful for the easiness of the connection to the internet and the ability to read the blogs set forth in front of me. It kick starts my week when read them all, since my computer at home can no longer log on to the things I enjoy! D:
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