Friday, June 23, 2023

When the Internet is Down



You don't realize how much you depend on something until you don't have it anymore. Foil Arms and Hog find out when they've checked into a cabin in the woods that doesn't have internet service. It's a tragedy of epic proportions! Well, it might not be for older people, but for Generation Z, everything they do is dependent on the internet: procuring food, asking for help, finding your way around, and passing the time with entertainment. Yeah, they've heard about alternative methods for all those things, but they can't remember what they are because they never had to commit anything to memory, since they could always look things up on the 'net. These guys do not handle it well.  

This reminds me of the time my younger daughter had an interview in the Cumberland Gap area, where even sunshine has to be imported. She had no use for a map, since she never learned to read one anyway. She didn't need directions. She was surprised to find there are places with no internet access, and became lost. She had to resort to the very last thing she ever wanted to do- ask strangers for help. But rather than learn strategies for getting around without the internet, she has just vowed to never go into a deeply mountainous area again.  





4 comments:

Bicycle Bill said...

Unashamed boomer who used to use the internet for traveling by going to a site like MapQuest, zooming in on the area I was going to be in and then printing out a screenshot of the map.  I then used a highlighter to mark out my route and put the home-made 'Trip-Tik' on a clipboard that sat on the seat alongside of me.  That way, if I did end up off-course, I could use the map to reorient myself and get back on track.

Of course, having been the best map-and-compass man in my old Boy Scout troop didn't hurt any.

-"BB"-

Miss Cellania said...

The first time I went to St. Paul, I pulled up a map, found my destination, my motel, a friend's house, and the Mall of America. I printed the map, but ended up not using it at all because I had studied the map and knew the city layout. A year later when I went back, I found all those places easily again with no map or directions. That's what comes of growing up as a traveler without GPS.

xoxoxoBruce said...

Don't take directions from someone who says you have a mighty purty mouth... ever.

Tim said...

I carry a GPS with me when I travel I tested using my phone and GPS for directions; there were areas where my phone lost signal but my GPS did not.

But I have also had and used maps from AAA, ones that I printed out from, say, maps.com, and also wandered around to find things.