Yesterday, I hiked back to Dexter Lake, Spectacle Lake and Water Millspond in Ferris Lake Wild Forest, off of Hall Road and Seeley Road (which is off of Piseco-Powley Road). I could have driven Hall Road, it's not rough and there was plenty of parking as I was the only one there, but I often prefer to walk remote mountain roads to look at wildlife without having to worry about tripping on rocks.
It was about 15 miles round trip, via Hall Road - Dexter Lake Trail - Burnt Vly Trail - Water Millpond Loop, but it was well worth it as it was remote wilderness with many scenic views, including North Creek Falls which is rarely visited. I didn't see a single other person hiking for 5 hours.
I moved into my apartment 18 years ago after graduating college. Over those years I have never owned a television, except for a brief while a decade ago – maybe a year – when I had a cheap TV tuner that I could use with my HDMI monitor but then that tuner broke and I tossed it into a fire somewheres in a wilderness. Stunk of chemicals, glad I was in real remote country.
Never had much interest in television, honestly. It always struck me as a lot of people yelling at you, selling crime and promoting violence by the government workers against the people. And Honest Abe’s Used Cars. I often confuse Billy Fuscillo and Donald Trump, though I’ve heard the prior is long dead now. And who needs that now when we have YouTube?
Originally I saw little purpose in having home internet when I could just walk down to the library and later the town park for free Wi-Fi. I wrote scripts I could download Youtube for home watching. Then my phone plan started to include hotspot data, which was good during the pandemic compared to working in the cold in my truck at the library.
But as time marched on, smartphones came more powerful and data limits lifted and ultimately became essentially unlimited, even that seemed unnecessary. And I found there was less that I needed my laptop for, when my phone was smaller, more portable and could be used from where ever including the comfort under my sheets on a cold winters day.
Now I see basically no reason for Wi-Fi at home and it’s rare I ever even bring my now old and falling apart laptop home. I just do everything on my phone. Mostly just reading and writing at this point – I plug in an ordinary USB keyboard to my phone. And recently, I’ve moved away from social media, in favor of doing more reading of E-books and E-Magazines from the library. All perfectly able to be enjoyed from my phone.
According to Google AI, it’s mostly the very poor and elderly who choose to not have home internet or Wi-Fi. And that’s like like 2 or 3 percent of the population. It is seen as a form of poverty, almost like those who did not live with electricity in America. And those odd balls, the privacy paranoid. But I just think television and Internet is kind of a harmful medium.
I would be loathe to be completely cut off from the world of smartphones and connection over them to the Internet, but I also see less and less of a purpose for having a laptop and are no rush to replace my own when it breaks though for the occasional blog coding and map making, it sure is good to have.
But I’m not sure if I’d embrace home internet, even when I do some day have a house and homestead. Smartphone yes, and maybe a basic Linux laptop that I could connect to internet from the library or light hot spot use, but not the monthly unlimited high speed internet common in most homes these days. But it’s been months since I had my laptop home or gone down to the library to connect over the Wi-Fi.
Nothing having home internet, according to the AIs and various Internet sources is a form of impoverishment that holds people back from the ability to apply to job opportunities. Maybe I haven’t had to look for a job in years now, but also I think I could do that just fine at the library Wi-Fi if needed. Hell, I remote worked for nearly two years sitting out in parking lots eight hour days in my pickup.
Honestly, if anything, I find home internet to be more impoverishing and not just in the sense of money spent and electricity wasted. Not having the internet or television at home, forces you to do other things.
