It seems as though being on an airplane is the best time for me to contribute to my blog. It is pretty much the only time I am disconnected from the Internet. United is behind a few of its competitors that offer in-flight wi-fi. My computer is nothing but a template for my own creations and home to everything I have saved prior to “disconnecting.” As it struggles to connect to a network without success, it reminds me of a time that existed before the Internet. When a computer was nothing more than a digital typewriter with meager “saving” capabilities.
When dial-up through AOL was born, I remember suffering through the painfully long “connection” periods of what sounded like cats squealing.
When broadband was finally instituted, my family failed to cancel our monthly auto-payment to AOL. Just last week but 9 years overdue, I called to speak with an AOL rep. to cancel 12 years of $20 monthly payments for which was clearly outsourced to Bangladesh. The woman I spoke with confirmed that after my family switched to Broadband, there was no reason to pay the monthly “dial-up” fee. I presume she will be reprimanded for telling me the truth as the recording states that all calls are recorded for quality purposes. I guarantee that means all calls are recorded for quality profits. Never the less, I realized how far we have come since the days of dial-up. However, in the early 90s chat rooms were a good indication that people were hungry for digital interaction, engagement and self-promotion. This is exactly what social networks offer to their users.
