By CONOR SHEA
Executive Editor
On Friday the Saint Rose wireless network crashed for just over two hours. During that time, posts on Yik Yak (an anonymous, location-based social media app) ranged from “F**k strose wireless,” to the simple and poetic “Strose wifi… Why you no work.” It is through the lens of Yik Yak that it can be seen just how temperamental we have become about internet access.
We’ve all heard the claims that millennials are the generation of instant gratification, but I doubt it has ever been this bad. Our need for constant content and connection has driven us to near-lampoon levels of whining and neediness.
I can hardly think of another service that could elicit such a response from people at any point in history.
Imagine that this is the early-to-mid 1900s, and you still have your milk delivered to your door. If they were unable to deliver because of a vehicle breaking down or a mistake on their end, what do you think your reaction would be? I’m guessing it wouldn’t be “F**k Mark’s Milk Delivery Service.”
What is it about technology that makes us believe it should work without fail every single time? For all we know, the cause could have been completely external and not at all related to the College. And yet we find ourselves cursing Saint Rose IT like they suckerpunched us.
Not unlike the human characters in “Wall-E,” on Friday our digital world came crashing down around us, and we were thrown back into reality. My solution? I went to the gym, but more out of boredom than anything else.
In that moment when I decided to do something productive instead of browse the internet, I felt a little bit happier. Leaving the gym, a place I hadn’t been to in months, I felt somewhat accomplished. This is something that I have never experienced after binge-watching an entire season of “House of Cards.”
So while it was only a brief two hours that the campus had no access to the information superhighway, it may have been a wakeup call. Perhaps we all need a little more “technology detox” in our lives.
But then again, “House of Cards” season three comes out this month… so maybe I’ll start this resolution in March.
