Do We Take The Internet For Granted?

 by: Jesse S. Somer

One small change made a huge impact in a day in the life of Zardinia Zaffas.

I can see you right now. You’re sitting at your desk staring into the computer screen, the Internet is connected and the information is flowing like a river. If you are at work, you are randomly checking email, News sites and interesting topics in between your necessary tasks. There’s a woman like you out there, her name is Zardinia Zaffas and this is an interesting tale about a recent day in the life of her world.

Monday morning was like any other to Zardinia: waking up to the sound of 60’s music on her clock radio, breakfast of the usual oatmeal with maple syrup, grapefruit with a little brown sugar, peppermint tea and of course her favorite food-the sacred Pink Lady apple. This is followed by 20 minutes of yoga and a nice hot shower, then jump in the car and down the highway to her job as a software programmer.

However when Zardinia walked into the office on this particular Monday she could sense something was wrong. It was like an anxious buzzing cloud of confusion was raining weirdness in the air. As she sat down her supervisor walked up and gave her the news. The company’s Internet connection was temporarily ‘out of order’ and would be fixed at an indeterminate time. Well, life sure is unpredictable.

After logging in she realized she no longer had her usual access to the daily News information. Deciding to go down to the lobby where the newspapers were sold she took a ride down the elevator and grabbed a copy. Back at her desk as she perused through the International section she heard the sound of a throat being cleared. Looking up over the paper she saw the face of her supervisor once again, although this time his demeanor had gone through an obvious transformation.

“We don’t pay our staff to read newspapers here Miss Zaffas. If you want to read the Newspaper please do it on your own time at lunch or at home.” he said obviously agitated.

Zardinia’s face contorted with obvious surprise, “I’m sorry Mr. Stevenson.” A red sunset spread across her cheeks. “I’ll get back to work sir.”

Back at her desk after doing a few jobs Zardinia realized that she needed to make a few emails to her friends about her party on the weekend, but of course this was no longer possible as the Internet was down. After making a few calls she got onto her good friend Tommy Vasquez. After one of his patented jokes directed at her about the lack of romance in a single person’s lifestyle, she unfortunately didn’t realize how loud she had been laughing. Again a looming presence of towering shadow blocked out the light in front of her.

“Oh man.” She mumbled to herself. Another thought swam slowly through her mind, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this guy so many times in one day.”

“Miss Zaffas, I’m sure that is not a personal call. Is it?” Mr. Stevenson was starting to resemble a hydroponically grown candy apple red tomato.

“I’ve got to go Tommy.” Hanging up the phone quickly Zardinia looked down sheepishly, but then suddenly stood up and looked Stevenson directly in the eye. This silenced the man and she went back to work at her computer as Stevenson walked away shaking his head in bewilderment. After working for a while she realized how much she missed searching the Web for all the random interesting thoughts that passed through her mind everyday.

“Not having the Net really sucks. It’s like I’m addicted or something. Or is it that I just can’t get away with murder anymore.” She whispered out loud.

Zardinia could be addicted to the Internet, a lot of people are; most of the good things in life have people who just can’t have enough of them. But I think in Zardinia’s case it’s more the fact that she’s gotten used to the hidden freedoms lying in the Web. It is often the case that we only realize how important and useful something is when we no longer have it. Maybe we need to have more appreciation and gratitude for this new tool that so many of us use without even thinking.