My Wi-Fi reaches the backyard. My family no longer has to.
For generations, parents worked tirelessly to get their children outside. Fresh air. Sunshine. Exercise. The occasional conversation with another human being. Then somebody invented whole-home Wi-Fi coverage and quietly eliminated the need for all four.
Today's home internet can reach the patio, the garden, the garage, and possibly the neighbor's swimming pool. It's a remarkable engineering achievement, considering most of the family hasn't moved from the couch since breakfast.
We used to worry about children wandering too far from home. Now we worry about them wandering too far from the router. The backyard is still there. It's just competing with streaming, gaming, social media, and a thousand people who aren't actually in the house.
In When the Internet Goes Down, Life Comes Up, a temporary outage accomplishes what years of parental encouragement couldn't: people rediscover the outdoors. Meanwhile, When Your Smart Home Calls Customer Service reminds us that connecting everything in the house doesn't necessarily mean connecting the people living in it.
The irony is impressive. We spent years improving wireless technology so people could move around freely. Then we made staying in one place so entertaining that nobody bothered.
The backyard has beautiful trees, fresh air, and plenty of room to relax. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a pause button.
Explore more Chad Geepeety™ cartoons about Wi-Fi, connected homes, family life, and the technological miracles nobody thought through.
