Patty Mayeux Blog

Here’s a secret…keep some content downloaded on your favorite streaming device. Last week our neighborhood experienced outages from our internet service provider. I had several reactions to the inconvenience. The first was arrgghh! And maybe some other choice words. I needed to send emails, upload blogs and do research. The second reaction was to remember a time when we did research at the library. We dialed the phone connected by a wire to the plug in the wall to communicate. The third was to offer some context to my grumbling neighbors (me included) with a reminder of all those around the world who have no power. It didn’t help the high school daughter of one friend who couldn’t complete her assignment, the modern version of the dog ate my homework. My final thought was to blog about what it means to miss connections. I take the internet for granted, but when it’s not available I am sorely aware how much I rely on it. It is my go-to activity. I didn’t want to clean or file or read. Taking the choice away made me only want option A. Instead, I called friends and caught up in a real-time, genuine way. So I change my advice. Don’t download content to prepare for internet outages. Take advantage of the forced media deprivation and call someone you love. Sometimes it takes a disconnection to take care of connections that mean something.