My Internet is out for at least two weeks. We paid the phone company over the phone, but the phone cut out as they were relaying the confirmation number. They decided that that meant we didn’t want to pay our phone bill, reveresed the charges, and turned off our phone (we were away for the holidays, thinking everything was all right). We called and they said it was their fault and turned our phone back on. Half an hour later they cut off our DSL. We called and they apologized and said they’d expidite turning it on but it could take a week. It didn’t happen, so we called again, and they claimed it’s our fault and we have to pay a $90 reconnection fee and put down a $200 deposit and it will take two weeks and that we were “problem customers” so they would not consider expiditing it for any reason whatsoever.
Sadly, no other providers can get us Internet faster. Fuck you SBC. Rest assured that I will NEVER ever consider being involved in anything involveing you ever again, and I will tell every person I meet from now on why they should follow suit.
I don’t think you well established old timers with realize how important the Internet is to young people these days, especially college students.
I’m currently trying to move. This means looking for a house and a job. Now, I could probably find a paper from the place I’m trying to move to at the bookstore, and submit all my resumes in hardcopy and rack up some nice long distance fees calling potential homes. But looking for things like rentals and jobs now is basically an online process. Many orgranizations require an online resume or request email as first contact (it’s a lot easier to an HR person to work reading in a few emails in a day than always dealing with a ringing phone). Even if I did use newspapers, I’d miss out on things like Craig’s List which are some of the better ways to get houses and jobs. The Internet is probably the best job search tool out there.
I’m applying to grad schools. I honestly don’t know how they did this before the Internet- did they travel to where they went to school and hope to run in to their old profs? Did they send mail (and deal with the delays) whenever they needed a transcript or a letter of recommendation or something? Did they send for the catalogues of every potential school in the world to see what their programs were like? I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
The Internet is also becoming a primary means of communication. In college, I didn’t have a real phone line because all my communication with friends, family and teachers was over the Internet. I still use the Internet as my primary way to contact my family and my far-flung friends from college and high school. My mom is in a Guatamalan jungle right now, and the Internet is the best way to get ahold of her- I don’t have to hope to be home for her phone calls or wait weeks for the mail. When people meet romantically now, they exchange email adresses and IM screennames instead of phone numbers. Without the Internet you are cut off from communicating with many people.
I also use the Internet for practical things- I’m trying to book some airline tickets using my mom’s frequent flier miles. I’d like to reactivate my Netflix account because Netflix was my primary source of entertainment besides reading stuff from the library and on the Internet. I live in a town without any Kmart or Target type stores so when I want stuff like a timer switch for my coffee maker or a pair of shoes pretty much my only choice is to get it on the Internet or take a multi-hour bus ride to the next city over. I do my banking over the Internet and closely moniter my finances…I don’t think I even get paper statements anymore. The Internet has become the practical all purpose Getting-Stuff-Done tool, although people that grew up in different times might not realize how much it’s become a part of normal houshold management to younger people.
I don’t even want to get started with how much school business is done on the Net. It is the primary way of contacting teachers, recieving grades and feedback, research (even library searches can be done on the Internet meaning you can plan your library day in the middle of the night instead of futzing around the catalogue with the clock ticking down), submitting work, planning and executing group projects, dealing with stuff like registering for classes and applying for financial aid…the list goes on and on. A college student without Internet access is crippled scholastically, even with access to school or library computers. It’s possible…just like it’s possible to not buy the books and check them out on reserve from the library…but it severly limits your practical study time and means that all the resources you need may not be availible when you need them. All colleges I know of provide Internet in dorms and dial-up access to those living off-campus (although 90% of college students I know have broadband access) because Internet is that important.
