One Boy Has Trouble Returning to Dial-Up Internet

A majority of American households have accesshe tried to connect to the service it failed and he
to cable or satellite television. In addition to that,became frustrated. On the third try it finally went
most of these same homes have subscriptions tothrough and he was connected. He became even
broadband internet. As both have become moremore frustrated when he would be chatting with
popular and easily accessible, the monthlya friend and suddenly he would stop receiving
subscription prices have gone down, making itmessages, and then after about two minutes of
easier for people to afford both. Additionally,patiently waiting the whole service would
many American families have a second propertydisconnect. It would take another 10 minutes to
like a ski condominium or a summer vacationget back online and then he would have to explain
home. Most people become accustomed to havingto his friends what had happened, or by that time
these novelties every day, so when they take athe friends would have already disconnected. It
trip to their secondary home, they feel the urgewas a very frustrating process for Bobby.
to have access to them. Once a person becomesIt was impossible for him to do more than one
accustomed to something, it can be very difficultthing at a time without his broadband connection.
to break away.If he was surfing the web, he couldn't be on
Once a person experiences something new, it isInstant Messenger and vice versa. It would take 5
difficult to go back to the original version. Foror more minutes to load a website that took him
example, once someone watches a baseball gameonly seconds when he was on his schools
on a high definition television, when they return tonetwork. It was time consuming and unreliable and
their ordinary television it feels like they haveit was very tedious sitting and hoping that a page
gone back ten years. Once someone experienceswould load before it timed out.
broadband internet, it is very difficult to return toHis parents had never experienced anything other
a dial-up modem.than dial-up so they were accustomed to the
Bobby's parents sent him away to a boardingdial-up speed. After Bobby told them about his
school for his high school career. He had comeschool they were intrigued and said if he found
from a town where there was no broadbandsomething available in the area than they would
access. At the school he was introduced to T3pay for it. He checked with the local phone
Broadband internet, which provided incredibly fastcompany but they didn't have DSL access. After
internet speeds like he had never experiencedsearching the internet, he found satellite
before. Over the course of time he grewbroadband internet that could function in his home.
accustomed to the internet speed and consideredHis parents were amazed by the speed and soon
it normal. When he returned home for the holidayrealized why Bobby had been so annoyed with
break, he couldn't believe how slow the 56kthe dial-up modem. On all his future vacations,
modem had become.Bobby never had to deal with the stress of
Bobby wanted to talk to his friends from schooldial-up internet again.
using instant messenger. The first couple of times