I went to see Melissa Marconi-Wentzel in her office to learn more about people’s struggles as they coped without the internet. Marconi-Wentzel, though, had a different take.
KCAW: “Some people have never felt more like they’re living on an island than they are right now.”
Marconi-Wentzel: “Or more free. You know, I had expected there to be more of that kind of internet withdrawal, the kind of stereotypical withdrawal from being constantly connected. But I actually didn’t really see that, which was a surprise to me. So from my little corner of the world, my practice, you know, my friends and colleagues and acquaintances, what I really noticed was a (not that slow) transition into a sense of relief, more so than anything.”
A sense of relief. I know I felt it – especially once we learned that the outage was limited in scope and would be of relatively short duration. I didn’t really mention it to anyone, since Sitka was already becoming a town of haves and have nots – those who have Starlink, and those who have not. But texting and cell phones – even landlines – were unreliable for a few days, with or without Starlink.
Marconi-Wentzel says being unreachable was a welcome surprise.
“What I kept hearing from adult clients and adults in my life was this sense of ‘this is like a snow day for us,’” she said. “Suddenly, we feel relief from this pressure of being constantly connected, and it feels good. And even among the adolescents and the children with whom I work, there was more appreciation for this experience than stress around it.”
So now what? A cable-laying ship is not far from Sitka, repairing our fiber-optic link to the rest of the world. Is everything going to go back to the way it was? Or will people live more intentionally now, after participating in an unintended social experiment?
Marconi-Wentzel says we don’t have to go back.
“This experience helped held up a mirror to our faces so that we gained insight into just how tied we feel to technology and how exhausting and stressful that is in our daily lives,” said Marconi-Wentzel, “and the less we had of it, the more people were starting to reconnect with other people: their families, their friends, pick up old enjoyable activities like playing the guitar, playing family games. And they realize, ‘I feel more alive, I feel more connected, I feel more human.’ And so then the question becomes, is this is something you value? How do you bring more of that back into your life once we’re reconnected to the internet? And those are the conversations I’m having with people.”
An important distinction is that out-of-touch is not necessarily isolated. The act of seeking out an available WiFi signal from someplace like Sitka’s Public Library actually brings people together, so does dropping by a neighbor’s house to download a movie. This is a lot different from the Covid Pandemic, which split communities. Marconi-Wentzel is overwhelmed by the generosity she’s seen, and the grace she’s experienced from people whose lives have been turned upside down just like hers.
“I’m just sort of buoyed by the humanity that this has brought out in everybody,” she said.
Sitka lost internet – as well as most telecommunications – on August 29 when the fiber optic cable serving the community failed. Limited service was restored by September 8, and full service could resume within a few days.
