"I spent a whole day without wifi!"... do you want a medal?

I recently read an article in a girly teen magazine (it was the only thing that was remotely interesting to read at the doctor’s office) about a girl who spent the whole day without Wi-Fi. They made a huge deal out of it, and the girl sounded like she had just saved a bunch of kitten from a house on fire. Have we really arrived to this? Where going a day without Wi-Fi is a huge achievement and should be added to you CV: “Capable of going a day with no Wi-Fi and not having a meltdown”? I’ve talked to a few teenagers about it, asking them what they would do without Wi-Fi. For them, it was unthinkable. The worst, is that I am really not that older than them. We are basically from the same generation.

 I’ve even seen this with my older brother: we just arrived to a new hotel, and he was pissed because there was no Internet connection at first, then it was slow. Even adults have trouble going a day without relying on Internet: emails, work related stuff, Internet, downloads etc. What do we do the day Internet goes down and there’s no more Google? Where would you find how to clean a kettle?

If I’m completely honest, I’m a lot on Internet. Usually it’s for watching my TV-shows, anything work related and emails. Once in a while YouTube or amazon, and on a few rare occasions Facebook or Linkedin. But I see my dad who is constantly checking his Blackberry for emails, or my brother sending BBMs to his friends. After dinner, you won’t find us in front of the TV, but all staring at our laptops, sometimes in the same room.

We actually put up three things to limit our addiction to Internet:

-       No Internet Saturday. Basically, on Friday we unplug our router and turn off the cellular network on our phones. We even extended it to no electronics Saturday, where phones only allowed to call or text in emergency, laptops are put away and the TV is off during the day.

-       Wi-Fi off at night. I realized that I needed to go on Internet before going to bed and when I woke up. So basically I would be sleepy, ready for bed, then I’d take my iPhone and read a page of FML or 9gag. This resulted in waking my brain up and I’d have a really hard time to fall asleep. So Wi-Fi is shut off from 8pm-9am.

-       Family game night. Oh god, what an invention… This is usually on a weekend day. Basically after dinner, we bust out the scrabble, rumikube or monopoly. No phones allowed, no TV and no computers.

I mean it’s not that hard to let go of your laptop and Blackberry and go read a book instead. I never want my kids to identify themselves to that girl, and be proud whenever they let go of their IPhone for one day. They should be able to do it regularly and rely more on the library, books or just play outside.