damselfish

I'm going to Yellowstone tomorrow with my grandparents for the week, and I'm finding myself peeved with the luddite police I'm running into. I'm trying to find out if there's internet in the hotel but I keep running into people piously bleating about how you should "get away from it all and shouldn't be tied to the internet, enjoy nature!" As if the two are somehow mutually exclusive. As if anybody has ever responded positively to being excoriated on how they "should" have fun by the pathologically smug.

It's part of the idea that taking away distractions will help you relax. I'm sure it helps some people relax. I don't know many of those people. The ability to do nothing, awesome, but enforcing idleness makes me twitch. Makes lots of people twitch (us outdoorsy folks can be high-strung, I've found).

I'm sorry you have such poor impulse control that you need to be totally cut-off, but some of us are perfectly capable of filling a day with hiking, kayaking, and photography before ending the night with some hanging out online. If you have such an internet addiction, you should be free to leave your computer and phone behind.

Especially if we're traveling with grandparents. Especially if we're going to Yellowstone and not somewhere less touristy with some friends who end the night boozing around the campfire. The odds are good I'm going to find myself alone from dinner until bedtime. Maybe I'll find something to do. The idea that I should be happy to fill this time doing "nothing" makes my teeth itch.

I'd spot on a website about the hotels: "Please note that all park accommodations are non-smoking and reflecting the natural surroundings of Yellowstone; televisions, radios, air conditioning, and Internet hook-ups are not available."

Wow, these hotels have fewer amenities than a tent some friends of mine set up.

Also, it reflects the natural surroundings... but there's indoor plumbing. The kind of tech we allow and the kind of tech we consider intrusive into an experience is more reflective of our biases than it is about the experience.

Granted, I'll take "bathroom with four walls and no internet" vs. camping with a 3G connection.

I find the misunderstanding about what tech is and does--particularly for my generation--vexing. These holier-than-thou types don't have a problem with someone sitting on the porch reading a book until midnight, but they do have a problem with doing the same thing with a computer. And to a lot of folks in my peer group, the two pursuits are not actually all that different. If your complaint about people using a computer is that they check out and don't enjoy their surroundings, how is a book any different? I love sitting outside at sunset and reading as much as any proper bluestockinged childhood bookworm, but being told that I have nothing else to do and that is how it Should Be will gall just about anybody.

Sure, I won't miss the internet when I get there. Odds are, I wouldn't use it for more than checking the weather or finding out where to go/what to do in the park with the wifi. Being told to cut the cord and that it's "good for me" makes me want to buy a satellite and bathe the park in internet access.

Mostly, don't fucking talk to me about how to properly enjoy nature if it has to be done on your terms.