A very preggo Mama hiking in the redwoods stops for a pose
In December of 2008 my family and I moved to a lovely home in the rural part of our community. Cable Internet was not available and we were reluctant to go with a dish because we had had so many problems with our service at our last address. After a while we found out that our house was so secluded amongst the tall Redwood trees of Northern, CA that we couldn't get a dish because there wasn't a clear view of the southern sky from anywhere near our house.
I kept up with my online activities as best I could via the local library and my in-laws house but even with my best efforts I only managed to be a slim presence on Facebook, check my email a few times per month and keep our Netflix que barely updated. Two Sundays ago in the local paper it was announced that the county was seriously considering closing our local library due to budget cuts. That put our only library at a 45 minute drive away (not to mention the cost of gas).
As a homeschooling family I felt like we needed to have some access to information and in the event of not having Internet at home we had become HUGE fans of our local library. We used it not only for Internet access but more often for books to answer Nykki's questions, social opportunities, and a chance to stumble across new information via science journals and parenting magazines.
After trying a dial up connection we discovered that our local area could provide us with only the (literally) slowest connection you could have for dial up which was not usable with modern websites. Seth did some research and found a company out of Sacramento who sent up two nice techs to see if we could get dish service. They stood outside in the hail and freezing rain and installed a dish, held up by a pole, at the bottom of our hill. Afterward those techs spent hours running cable up the hill through the redwood trees my family and I were officially back online (God bless 'em)!
So what did I learn in those 15 months of no home Internet access? The first thing I learned was that I didn't need the Interent to survive (much as it may feel that way) and in the absence of Internet I relied heavily on local resources, news and people. With no radio stations available from our home other than NPR I had to set my schedule to the evening news broadcasts to know what was going on in the world.
I found that local news became every important. I made sure to always buy a Sunday paper to see what was going on both for news and entertainment in my local community. I listened to local radio programming and learned so much more about where I lived then I had ever learned in the four years before that.
I spent more time on the phone actually talking to people instead of writing quick emails. I could tell from the tones and voices of my friends and family how they were REALLY doing and made deeper connections with them all around.
I became very connected with my local church community. In the absence of being able to read spiritual blogs and listen to Sunstone MP3s, my spiritual connections again became local - my local church and my local library books. There I found so much rich information and inspiration that I may otherwise have overlooked.
With no Internet, look what I had time to make :)I think everyone should turn off their Internet at least once a year during TV turn off week and consider giving it up for a month or more from time to time. If you're unable to do so take a moment every now and again to reflect on what you "do" online and think about how you could fill or supplement those needs locally because after all, when there is no more gas for our cars and no more dish and cable companies we are all going to have to look the closest 100 people to us in the eye and say "Now what?" Why not get a head start and be sure that the WORLD wide web doesn't distract us from our community village?
