Why Fi?

Written by larry on October 6th, 2013

The ubiquitousness of WiFi coverage these days never ceases to amaze me. When I sat down at our local pub last weekend, I felt a brief vibration from my belt; my phone telling me that the BritishBeerCompany free WiFi access point was available. I opted instead to access a bottle Wells Banana Bread beer. We’ll leave the discussion of whether that was an optimal choice for another time, but now that WiFi is nearly as common as running water, it would be worthwhile to consider whether it’s always a good idea to quench our thirst.

Tomorrow I’ll be spending several hours in a 737. In the past, I’ve considered this to be an opportunity to catch up on some combination of the three Rs: reading, (w)riting, and relaxing. The isolation was a Good Thing.

Now, I’ve got the opportunity to fork over ten bucks or so for some moderately wide-band coverage during that six or so hours aloft. I tried it once when, during the introduction, it was free. They block video, which is fine. I never tried Skype. For browsing the web and checking email, it did the job. I ssh’d into my web server just for the hell of it. Probably, I spent most of the flight catching up on my favorite blogs and my email – I don’t really remember.

Generally, if I want to get online while I’m on the road, I want the WiFi to be free. When it’s not, I’m moderately annoyed, especially if I’m in a top-dollar hotel. It’s been my experience that the fancier the hotel, the less is included in your room charge. At the Hampton Inn, WiFi is always included, but it never seems to be so at the Embassy Suites.

But when it comes to the airlines, I’m actually kind of glad that WiFi isn’t free. It’s new technology, so when it was introduced it wasn’t free, and given the sad state of the airline industry today, it’s unlikely that it will be free any time soon. Which is just fine for me. Tomorrow, I’ll get to work on a few short stories with one less distraction, and most likely the world will survive without receiving my emails for a few hours.

Generally, I’m not a fan of unplugging. While I’m too old to spend my every waking hour texting, I fully understand why today’s yoots don’t want to break that connection. I wouldn’t voluntarily give up any of my five senses, so why would they voluntarily give up their sixth.

But there’s another metaphor that comes to mind, too. My taste in music is diverse, I love conversation, I’m fascinated by the subtleties of sound as a telephone call is established1, and I could listen to Air Traffic Control for hours. Sound is very important to me.

But sometimes I just want quiet.

So tomorrow, I’ll skip the ten bucks and enjoy the quiet. There’s a time for everything, and some things are easier at 35,000 feet.

 

1 –  If you’re wondering how big a deal this could be, take a look at Exploding The Phone, a very worthwhile read

 

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