when i bow down to the internet.

today, lightning/thunder/big storm/God struck our home and fried our internet mother board thingy and so when i got home there was no internet, no email, no blogging, no nothing. at first, i was okay...but hours later, i found myself wondering if this was going to be permanent. maybe we'd be unplugged for days and every email we'd get wouldn't know we were out-of-the-internet-loop, and there'd be much miscommunication and much misunderstanding and so on. it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't just us...if the entire country was off internet for a day, it'd be really cool. but when you're the only one, you're left with yourself and you can't help but think how much of a slave you are to this little electronic machine that sends notes "in secret" across the waves like a seventh grade student. you anticipate a reply or check to see if your non-speaking, all writing communication has gone anywhere and before you know it, the internet has become more than a friend and much closer than a brother---it's like a bathroom or something. i cannot, and i'm serious about this, cannot imagine my life without it. now, this doesn't mean i can't live without it, this means that i can't remember what life was like pre-internet. what did i do all day long in my spare time? i suppose the television grabbed some of my mindless attention but i wonder what else got nabbed. after 7 hours+ with no internet today, i can say the experience was positive and that it was good for me to be off for so so long. however, my thinking and questioning of my idolization of the internet and all of its glory comes back into play in my head the moment i began writing this post. i realize the bar has been raised and that the world expect much more out of people and their relationship with the internet but i still wonder if we've gone too far or hit the bottom rock of interpersonal relationships gone bad. who knows. i need help i think. does anyone else feel the same way or am i just really too close to my glowing little box?