2023-06-08 from the editor of ~insom
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I got back from a trip to Toronto last week. No less than
two people in the group I was with previously worked at
small dial-up ISPs in the early days of the Internet, so
that was a vehicle for nostalgia that maybe put me in a
certain headspace.
My flight back was messed up for reasons I still don't
understand, so I got the train back and used my business
lounge access at Toronto Union Station. When I was last
here, masking was still mandated and there was a higher
level of COVID precaution. There was a bank of computers at
the back of the room, with little privacy screens separating
them. They are for public use and this kind of thing used to
adorn "Business Centres" at hotels around the world. I'm not
saying that they are gone everywhere or that no one would
ever need to use a public computer -- but surely their days
are numbered?
That bank of computers was taped off from public access with
a sign saying that section was closed due to COVID. No doubt
no one wanted to have someone clean down keyboards between
uses etc. Fair enough!
On my recent trip back, the computers were gone and the
nooks were kept. They're now a convenient place to plug in
your laptop and work, which in practical terms is an
improvement, but it did make me a little sad. Again: totally
reasonable. There's very few cases where someone with $200
for a business class train ticket does not have a laptop,
tablet or smartphone with them.
It made me think how we continue to move this kind of
infrastructure from a shared thing to an individual one.
In the 90's I used payphones, which was generally common at
the time. No one could reach me (I was a teenager, it's not
like I was going to carry a pager), and I could ring the
people who's phone numbers I had memorized. Mostly this came
down to telling someone I was delayed on my way somewhere,
or about a change of plans. During a time when things were
difficult at home a public payphone was (ironically!)
somewhere I could have a more private conversation.
When I visited Germany there was no way that I would take a
personal computer with me on a flight. I logged on from a
cybercafe in Berlin to email friends; being sure to reset my
session thoroughly and change my password when I got home.
I was with my dad at the time and loaded up my personal
website: he was amazed that my website was available all the
way over in Germany. (This is a way of thinking that didn't
even occur to me. Similar to a friend's mother who didn't
like him talking to people on the Internet at night because
the wrong kind of people are online at that time. As if it's
not always night somewhere...)
I still think that beyond "a free email address" this was
one of the early draws of Hotmail.com -- for people who
don't take a computer with them, or don't even own their own
computer, to have access to email from shared devices.
Even after getting a mobile phone, data was so expensive
that I used a modem and laptop when travelling. There was a
little while when payphones had RJ11/6P2C jacks. Hotels
still often have these. I wonder if they work?
Nowadays I don't even join provided WiFi networks most of
the time. I have LTE or 5G in Canada and it's usually as
good or better than most (poorly maintained) public WiFi
networks at hotels or airports or coffee shops. I recognise
this is a privilege, especially in Canada where data remains
kind-of expensive, but it's becoming a privilege accessible
to more people as time goes on. Soon, I expect the public
WiFi network will go the way of the RJ11 jack and the public
terminal in a shared space.
Nostalgia is a weird thing. I don't want to go back to
touching some gross shared mouse and using a malware riddled
computer and/or totally locked down hellish kiosk. I don't
want to ask a barista what the WiFi password is. I never
want to negotiate a V92 connection again.
I suppose what I miss is the time we didn't carry everything
we needed with us and so you always could communicate. I
miss a little bit of the ceremony of "going online" --
whether joining a network, logging into a kiosk or dialling
up -- and not just pulling your phone out of your pocket and
unlocking with a fingerprint.
Last thing: Randy Waterhouse in Neal Stephenson's
Cryptonomicon has a laptop with a GPS card and he sends
emails from all over Manilla and other places as the
adventure unfolds. For some reason that felt exciting when
the book came out and now it's hard to remember that's
something that used to be notable. Sending email whenever
you want and having your GPS co-ordinates at all times are
basically top two features of "owning a cell phone in the
21st century".
