While browsing news stories on the web, I've been noticing that several internet companies have had problems with e-mail outages. About two weeks ago, Gmail had a "major" outage, when its services experienced a glitch. The glitch caused many features of Google+, like Gmail, to become unavailable to about ten percent of users for 25-55 minutes. After passively dissing gmail via twitter after the mishap, yahoo experienced a little karma with their own outage today around 1:25pm. Their outage was shorter than google's.
Initially, I didn't think that either of the two incidents were worth discussion. However, after investigating a little further, I was surprised to discover the backlash that the two companies received from its users on social media. At first, I thought the complaints were a little ridiculous. Who would seriously throw a fit about not being able to check their email for ONE HOUR?
But... I thought about what if I had been one of the gmailers affected by the crash. While most of my messages aren't urgent, I do find myself checking my e-mail at least twice in one hour, outside of class. Just yesterday, I received an e-mail from my boss advising me to bring my lap top when I came to work. The e-mail was sent about forty minutes before I was scheduled to work, and if my account had been down, I would have not been able to complete my tasks for the day.
So the point is..... We are reliant on our e-mail and, I believe, technology in general. We need continuous access to this technology to get through daily obligations.
This idea ties in closely with a discussion that we had in class last night. Many people argued that they find themselves more content during experiences that lack the constant presence of technology. While I personally agree with this statement, the times described without technology were usually in a vacation-like setting. When exploring the streets of Venice or camping in the middle of the woods, there is a separation from reality and the responsibilities that come with reality. But what would life without your cell phone be like when your stuck in the middle of Chapel Hill on a college campus?
We inquired what would happen if we removed ourself from technology for moments at a time, like "walking back from class, without our phone in our hands." It may seem plausible to conservatively cut-back on our time with technology, but I would have to agree with Patrick that removing it from our lives would be IMPOSSIBLE.
Reality demonstrates that as college students in America, we need technology to succeed. It's nice to take time for ourselves by parting from our iPhones momentarily, but a few minutes may be all the time that we can realistically spare. In the fast paced world that we live in, it is a necessity to stay up-to-date, connected, and in tune with everything that is going on throughout our campus, in our country, and even across the globe.
We can't afford to break away from technology. Hell, we can barely afford for our e-mail to shut down for half an hour.
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