Get Occupied During Internet Downtime

The recent Taiwan earthquake was an 'eye opener' to many internet users around the world. The sea bed internet cables being at close proximity to the island were disconnected and required immediate repair work. Thereafter, internet services around the world were disrupted for more than a week.

Such a situation may not be a problem to folks who are still living lives without ever having to access the internet. However, many of us have adapted nicely to utilizing the internet to pay bills, shopping and etc. Problems with the internet will definitely affect our lives in one way or another.

We tend to react negatively to sudden & unwanted changes as with other changes in our lives. The first thing we should do is call our ISP (Internet service provider) and query regarding the situation. We may have another ISP subscription on standby in case of an emergency but it will probably be showing the same results. What can we do when there is no internet to log on to or the connection becomes too irritatingly slow? Suddenly we find a chance to indulge ourselves with other meaningful non - internet based activities.

Below are 6 tips on how to get occupied during internet downtime:

Rejuvenate quality moments

Perhaps your spouse had not noticed that you had shaved your beard recently, or your son complained that you never went to his football matches? Maybe your daughter is not taking to you now because you did not attend her recent swimming competition. Now is the best of chances to be with our families. Enjoy a good family meal together, grab a board game, bring them to the movies, take a nice romantic walk with your wife, play with your children, take candid pictures or videos and etc. Make some precious moments that we can all cherish in the future.

Get some health benefits from it

Many of us spend long periods of the day & even the nights on the internet to an extent that we may even disregard our health and deprive our bodies of its required exercises. In the event that we can not use the internet to send emails or chat with colleagues then we should take a walk around the office to actually talk to them in person. It is a good chance to relax our tired eyes, exercise our leg muscles and burn some calories in the process. Such an activity can positively enhance social & working relationships in an office environment.

Utilize the telephone

Give a call to your business contacts or online social contacts that you normally communicate with via email or chat. We may correspond with such people for years on end without ever actually having the chance to speak or meet them in person. Additionally we can arrange a meeting with them to have lunch together or go out with them for some drinks. It will increase our confidence and gain their trust to build a better business or social relationships.

Real world shopping

How about a trip to the shopping mall? Visit the most traffic feasible shopping mall near you since you may want to drive your car. We do not want to be reminded of enduring bad traffic congestion just for the sake of shopping. The experience of physically handling shopping items awaits us. We can touch books, smell perfumes, feel the weight of an item on our hands, and even eat some candy floss while window shopping. Cherish it as the event will not be a common activity in the future as more products are conveniently sold at much lower prices over the internet & purchased items are delivered directly to our specified addresses.

Visit the library

Do you remember the days when you had to go to the library to do research or find reference material, & etc? It is a good opportunity to relive some of your past memories. We browse around numerous book shelves, piling books on tables & actually flicking through real pages to find information. It is a challenging task as compared to initiating a super fast search on web browsers.

Snail mail (Letter writing)

Research has shown that people find it easier to express emotions on paper. Postcards are more fun, promotional & advertising based form of snail mail. The written words are exposed & may not be considered appropriate to the receiver. A well written letter is more appreciated by the receiver especially to the female gender. Letters tend to be more private as it is enclosed in an envelope. A good letter can be kept for years.

The seabed repair works progressed efficiently everyday & once again our internet connections return to normalcy. Let us take similar incidents of natural disasters affecting our internet usage as a reminder of how a reconnection has to take place. Not only reconnecting the internet seabed cables but primarily reconnecting ourselves to what matters most in our lives. Least we forget that we should spare some hours per day off the internet & reconnect ourselves to our good health & family. - Abas Kamal bin Sulaiman.