Disaster struck my building this weekend: the internet went down.  Cutting out around 10pm on Saturday, the connection didn’t resume until Monday morning.  The frustration was unmistakable among my friends and me as we sat, clicking refresh, hoping for the IT Gods to grant us just one quick peek at our Facebook notifications.  This miniature apocalypse, lasting 36 hours, highlighted how tethered to our ethernet cables and inseparable from our wifi networks we are.  We have become addicted to data.

Withdrawal

The first few hours were irritating, but bearable as I was able to use my phone’s internet access for basic email and Facebook checking.  But as the Sunday sun rose then set, I began to grow uneasy with approaching homework deadlines that required my laptop with internet access.  So with a bit of nerd-sorcery I tethered my phone’s internet connection to my computer, providing full 3G speed on my laptop.  My room instantly became an oasis of information in a dark sea of disconnectedness.  Friends flocked in, starving for a couple megabytes.  While everyone’s most basic internet needs of email and Facebook were satisfied by sharing my limited connection, the paucity of information affected every part of the day. Something as simple as getting dressed in the morning was awkwardly stalled as I couldn’t quickly check the current weather and temperature outside.  One of my friends had to trek over to the frenzied library, one of the few spots still with a connection, to print out a recipe for dinner.  More complicated tasks such as homework assignments and preparing a slide deck became so impractical that I put them off altogether until I got a connection.  All these difficulties did not exist but 15 years ago — a spectacular testament to the adoption and integration of the internet into our lives.

Dependence

The truth is that I and many others have become dependent on constant connectivity and unlimited access to information.  Some have reported on this notion, casting it in a negative  as if humanity itself was being infected by some black plague of stupidity (see Is Google Making Us Stupid?).  But this narrow-minded, fear mongering view fails to examine humanity’s long history of amalgamating with its most magnificent inventions.  Going backwards in time: imagine a day without electricity, without heating, without clothing, without cooked food.  All of our greatest technologies become as extra appendages to our limiting bodies.  The only real danger of adding these new limbs is the withdrawal of losing them.

Progress

Yes, we are addicted to data, just as we have become hooked on electricity or cooked food.  I do not view this unquenchable thirst as a scourge of society, but a testimony to its continuing progress above what our rudimentary flesh & blood are capable of.  Each new technological dependence, despite its hiccups, brings with it the power to change the world and redefine the very definition of humanity.  And that puts a smile on my face, as technology is the conduit of progress.