"Addicted to Email"
by: Kara Moldovan
Hello, my name is Kara.
Hi, Kara.
And I'm addicted to e-mail.
Gasp!
I admit it.
I spend countless time in front of the computer staying in touch with friends I would never pick up the phone and call. I waste my company's time. I waste my time. All for the sheer joy of e-mail. I'm sure I'm not alone. Let's face it. We live in a day and age where it is insanely easy to keep in touch. With cell phones, pagers, faxes and e-mail, anyone who wants to be "reachable" 24 hours a day, can.
The technology has blurred the lines between the home and office and business and pleasure. The hated man in the movie theatre whose cell phone rings just as the sexy love scene reaches its climax is proof that we are truly connected. But what about in other countries?
This same principle can be applied when traveling overseas. Despite our implicit prejudices about the apparent backwardness of Europe, it is incredibly simple to find ways to e-mail your friends and family back home. I spent three months this past summer living and traveling in Europe. I was a bit scared as I boarded that plane, wondering how often I could find a place where I could read my beloved e-mail.
I knew from Internet (of course) research that I would be able to find some places in the bigger cities with Internet connections. I never knew how simple it was going to be.
,br/>Like any tourist area, store proprietors know how to target the needs and wants of the foreigners who travel to their attractions. You've all seen the cheesy tourist traps that first charge $10 for parking, then a $15 admission fee, just to see the World's Biggest Ball of Yarn. In the case of the popular European cities I visited, many targeted the American student backpackers with cyber cafes. It was never very hard to find these places. They advertised in the bus and trains stations and in dance clubs.
Most charged per hour, but those staying in the area for extended periods of time could buy monthly passes. Some cyber cafes were run by an attendant whom you paid after you finished. Some were like arcades and you deposited your money directly into the computer. Some of the best places I found were in the smaller towns and weren't cafés at all. They were more of a computer store with a room full of computers with Internet connections you could rent.
E-mail was without a doubt faster, cheaper and easier to use than the phone or sending post cards to by friends and family back home. I actually sent out a newsletter of sorts to the people I wanted to stay in touch with and just mass e-mailed it to them each time I had something to add.
That method was cheaper, since I paid for the time to write one letter and read the ones I had received. It was less personal, but when I had time for those personal responses, I send out a quick letter.
Now, just because these countries are connected, doesn't mean they have the fastest connections. One cyber café I visited in Spain had only one modem each computer had to take turns sharing. I waited for an hour just to log on because the bartender was downloading MP3s.
Most every foreigner, American or German or whomever also had a Hotmail account. That made the Hotmail server slow around 4 p.m. every day. Some of these Internet establishments are also in buildings that were built 100 years ago. In Florence I found a small and crowded cyber café that blew a circuit every time all the computers were in use. The wiring, apparently, wasn't too updated.
So, I was able to appease my e-mail addiction while I was abroad. It wasn't that hard. Waiting for a slow computer was about the only factor that may have caused me to have an anxiety attack.
Get back to work, Kara.
