Speed, price key factors when it comes to surfing the net

Travellers today won’t know the struggle of traipsing around with a frayed map that is always way too big and never folds back the way it originally opened. Imagine the horror going to eat at a restaurant or visit an attraction simply because it looks good and not based on any Trip-advisor’s review?

What about not being able to Google places of interest but rather paging through your trusty copy of Lonely Planet or Frommer’s travel guide that you can still find on the bookshelves of most backpacking hostels around the world?

Despite it seeming tedious, there was some added joy in going into the great unknown with a map, not knowing if you would actually reach your end destination. It also prompted one to interact with the locals more. You tended to amble around and miraculously discovered oases of places in the never-ending desert of a new city or town.

Sometimes being in South Africa feels like a #throwback simply because data and an internet connection is so ridiculously overpriced. I never used to think this before I left home but once I was spoiled living in other countries I couldn’t imagine going back.

Imagine relying on scheduled programming? No streaming service. Not being able to watch your favourite show when you want to but on government-regulated programming. All because your streaming account would eviscerate your conservative data bundle.

No, you can’t just stream your favourite music but instead you have to rely on the MP3s or the radio … remember that thing?

A while ago all those memes were floating around on the interweb on how much money is siphoned from South Africans purely because of the exorbitant data prices. Based on my own experiences living abroad, I can only agree.

Having the fastest internet speed in the world while living in South Korea all but ruined me. I just could not go back to waiting overnight to download a film because streaming it would mean it would buffer every two seconds, or because data was cheaper after midnight.

It might be easy to assume that these are #firstworldproblems, but even in Vietnam, where most people drive motorbikes because the import tax on cars is so ridiculous, I enjoyed blitz fast internet for which I paid next to nothing.

This in itself to me is a travesty. Simply put, we can’t expect to keep up with the developmental speed of the rest of the world when we still pay the price of data we did at the dawn of the internet.

If you can’t go outside of our shores and travel the world, then by having access to the internet for a reasonable price you can bring the world to you. Armchair travel is still travel. We are part of a global village and we need to know what’s going on in it.

Dustin Jordan | Image: Supplied

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