Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Are we becoming too reliant on the internet? - Leanne Warr

Leanne Warr
By Leanne Warr
Editor - Bush Telegraph·Bush Telegraph·
2 Apr, 2024 02:34 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The internet is great, when it works. But what do you do when your network goes down? Photo / 123rf

The internet is great, when it works. But what do you do when your network goes down? Photo / 123rf

OPINION

I recently had an issue with my service provider when the network went down and I lost not only my internet but also my calls kept dropping. For reasons I won’t go into, I can’t get fibre.

I’m the generation that saw the early days of the World Wide Web and I’m old enough to remember pre-mobile days when all you had was a landline. I’m still old school in that I prefer to read a physical copy of a book rather than read it on a screen.

Nowadays, everything to do with my work is online. Even writing in Word depends on having a reliable connection as it’s on the network. So when it goes down, it means I can’t do my work.

I get it. We all have the latest devices and it seems like we’re all glued to screens these days, but I have to wonder if perhaps we’re all spending too much time online and less time talking to each other.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

I wouldn’t say my phone is practically an extension of my arm – it’s almost a given that I will miss a call occasionally because my phone is down one end of the house and I’m down the other.

The internet certainly has its pros and cons.

I wonder how we would cope if the worst happened, like a natural disaster, and we lost the internet or we were unable to call anyone.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But here’s something that we need to seriously consider, especially for those in rural areas.

What happens if we suddenly have no phone or if we’re out in the wop-wops somewhere and have no connection and we have an emergency – like a fire, or a car accident? Not every device has the ability to call 111 even with no signal.

It’s happened before. I once covered a story on a family who lost everything in a fire and they couldn’t get a signal unless they drove 15 minutes to the main road. While they got out safely, what if it happened to another family who didn’t? It takes mere minutes for a fire to take hold and precious minutes are lost if no one can call out. Not even to emergency services.

Don’t get me wrong. The internet is great, when it works, and it certainly helped during Covid when we were locked down, giving us the ability to keep in touch with friends and family we couldn’t see otherwise.

When it works, it’s good, but when it goes wrong, it can go very wrong.

Leanne Warr is the editor of the Bush Telegraph.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Watch: 'Go buddy, go'- seal catches waves with locals at popular surf spot

09 Jul 03:19 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Ute flips onto beach in Hawke's Bay

09 Jul 02:48 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

'Very efficient': Fine-sweeper car snaps more than 5000 parking violations in five months

09 Jul 02:05 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Watch: 'Go buddy, go'- seal catches waves with locals at popular surf spot

Watch: 'Go buddy, go'- seal catches waves with locals at popular surf spot

09 Jul 03:19 AM

Michael Farr reckons the seal he filmed rode the waves 'better than some of the locals'.

Ute flips onto beach in Hawke's Bay

Ute flips onto beach in Hawke's Bay

09 Jul 02:48 AM
'Very efficient': Fine-sweeper car snaps more than 5000 parking violations in five months

'Very efficient': Fine-sweeper car snaps more than 5000 parking violations in five months

09 Jul 02:05 AM
Seal playing in the surf at Te Awanga Beach

Seal playing in the surf at Te Awanga Beach

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP