• by Ryan , May 18, 2009

Well, summer’s finally here. You know what that means: beautiful sunny days; crippling allergies, and decreased media usage. Throughout the school year (or at least for this most recent semester), I was probably on my computer for 10 hours out of the day (keep in mind that I was doing a research immersion last semester, so it was more like an office environment than a class environment). But now that summer’s here, I can give the laptop and my inboxes a rest, and go enjoy the outside world.

Bicycling, walks, mowing the lawn… I can’t wait. And since I don’t have a portable media player, these will be largely media free activities (which is good, because whenever I think about being constantly engaged with media, I think of Chuck Palahniuk’s “Lullaby”).

This year, my summer job will allow me to largely preserve my media habits. Until I found a 40 hr/wk job, I was thinking that I might have to cancel my cable subscription (the Internet would not be going anywhere). Now that I have a decent job, no need. However, the job I have will keep me outside and away from my computer and other media, so the time I spend on my media habits will greatly decrease.

Finally, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’m going to the Netherlands in July. I’m very excited to see how the Internet is perceived there since the Netherlands is one of the most connected countries in the world. It’s interesting that I’ll be charged $1.29/min to use my cell phone, but if I can find free Wi-Fi (which I’ve heard isn’t too difficult), I’ll be able to talk to my girlfriend via Skype for absolutely nothing.

Oh, how I love the communication options given to us by technology.