My personal relationship with internet technologies and how their outage affected me on July 8th 2022

I woke up on July 8th expecting a barrage of notifications from all of my friends on sms and social media platforms. However, I was awakened to absolutely nothing. At first I didnt think too much of it, however as time dragged on - i grew increasingly nervous as to why I wasnt receiving any notifications. By 11:00am, I was frantically trying to get on the internet but it was hopeless. What proceeded was hours of me being unable to contact my family or friends in different provinces accross Canada as well as my local friends in Ontario. I thought at least I could get a coffee at my local Tim Hortons, right? However, I had a nasty surprise awaiting me at 3:00pm as I entered the Tim Hortons cafe. I was welcomed to a place was filled with complaining customers that were unable to pay for their drinks. Why? Because all of the transactional systems, including Interac e-Transfer, were powered by Rogers Telecommunications infrastructure - the same infrastructure that had been throughout the whole day. 

I had been unable to work, as my job position for my Marketing firm, was remote. I was unable to enjoy life's simple pleasures such as my Tim Hortons coffee. I couldn't enjoy social media posts that would give me a boost in the day, a quick laugh even. I quickly realized that a lot of happiness and lifestyle was associated with technological devices I owned. Devices that used technology which needed telecommunication infrastructure to run and allow me to view and enjoy my favourite content. This made me realize that my personal relationships valued technology too much. I had an over-reliance on technologies to help me complete my tasks throughout the day. My lifestyle had been built around internet technologies and even all of my hobbies and extra-cirricular activities revolved around the use of these devices. We must keep a balance between ourselves and technology. Yes, we should use it to help us and achieve and meet our dreams and goals, howveer. We must have viable alternatives that allow us to be able to unplug and ourselves and society still function without hinderance.