Well, not quite. But there's lots we need to do to GET ready to move. Boxes are seriously starting to pile up. Closing is a week from today- sooner than I can imagine. This week & last, Josh has been calling utility companies, making sure services are ended here and started at the new place. Our current phone and Internet provider doesn't have service at the new house, so we're going to have to switch providers. This included:
- Electric
- Gas
- Trash
- Phone
Other people to contact included the post office, to get our mail forwarded to the new address. I'm so glad Josh took care of all of this- I hate talking on the phone.
The one service we haven't set up officially is the Internet provider. Currently we have DSL with a wireless router, to allow both the desktop & laptop to connect. We've talked in the past about switching to dial-up internet for a few reasons- to save money is the most obvious one. Josh found an internet service provider that will provide dial-up for $4 a month or $40 a year. Currently, we're paying about $40 a month for both local phone and DSL. With the new internet service, it will be under $20.
But there's another reason I'm glad to pass up on high-speed internet. More times than I'd like to admit, I'll be on one computer, Josh will be on the other, and our free time together, won't be together at all, but doing our own thing on our online world. We aren't relating. With a dial-up internet connection, as Josh says, we'll be more "purposeful" online, rather than just browsing. Hopefully the time not spent online will be spent relating with others, or keeping house, or something more productive than refreshing my Google Reader.
So that's that. It will be an experiment. I may or may not blog as much. I hope I do. Regardless, I want to do what is healthiest for our household- is it silly to say that too much internet in the home is unhealthy? Is that blasphemous for a computer programmer to say so? And will a slower internet connection help?
4 comments:
I don't know, I have a seriously slow and unreliable internet connection (read: wireless) and I still manage to waste a significant amount of time online.
I tend to actually blame the slow Internet for the amount of time I waste online. Because it takes a full minute (or more, plus all the refreshings because my connection likes to time out like that)for a page to load. That's actually why I don't tend to comment very often. By the time the comment page has loaded, I can't remember what the post was about, let alone what my comment was going to be.
I think the answer to my problem is to just turn the computer off. But that is such a painful move! All my relationships (besides my husband's, of course) are online! My two best friends are in North Carolina and Georgia. And neither of them have enough minutes on their cell plans or landlines I can reach them on. So I'm on AIM. All day. I will drop what I am doing if that orange light starts flashing at the bottom of my screen. And thus nothing gets done. It's 12:30 AM and the dishes still need to be washed. And here I am online.
*Sigh*
I've actually been experiencing some serious nudgings of the Holy Spirit about this recently. Maybe I just need to trust that God will provide the comfort and relationships I need if I trust Him and turn off my computer? I just don't want to say good-bye to these friends!
Seems I've written my own little post in your comment section - hope you don't mind!
I am also a computer programmer, and I say that too much internet in the house is unhealthy.
We have tried a couple of low-cost dialup internet providers. One of them disappeared without notice. The one we have now is our long distance company. No monthly fee for long distance, 4 or 5 cents/minute for out-of-state calls (which we make many of since both our families are out of state, and we don't have cellphones), and 5.95 for dialup. Its only problems have been that it cuts us off after 2.00 hours (though we can reconnect right away), and once every couple of months, one of their servers flakes out and we can't connect.
$4/month sounds pretty good.
Ironically, we're thinking about getting (wireless) broadband at our new place, though we're wary of it for the same reason that you are.
My husband and I have been feeling the unhealthy results of too much internet. I am addicted. It's hard for me to not be on the computer for two reasons. #1- it's how I talk and communicate with everyone and I don't want to miss anything. and #2 I can't seem to remember what I did before there was internet.
Once my husband gets home I can stay busy because we can talk, or play games. But when it's just my daughter and I here I don't know what to do!
I also have been feeling the nudge to avoid the computer so much. I get so addicted and afraid I'm going to miss something that when my husband comes home I find me at the computer and him watching tv. What a relationship right!?
Looks like we are all feeling the call to lessen internet time!
Dial up drove us nuts and wasted a lot of time. I don't use our instant internet access much, but when I do it speeds things up. I try to do most of my computing at work. Except for the fact that I am not allowed to look at any pics or graphics here. That is a pain.
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