That three days in Omaha where my internet kept cutting out taught me something

Last December I drove to Omaha for my cousin's wedding. Stayed at a hotel near the airport. The wifi was so bad I couldn't even load a simple news article. After two days of fighting with the front desk, I walked to a coffee shop three blocks away. They had a sign saying their internet was "free and unfiltered." I sat there for four hours reading stuff I normally wouldn't bother with. Got into some political blogs that were blocked on my home network. Realized I'd been missing a whole side of conversations because of some filter my ISP uses. The hotel finally fixed their router on day three but by then I didn't care. Anyone else travel somewhere and accidentally find out your home internet is censored?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake19124d ago

Figure those filters are probably just blocking stuff nobody really needs to see anyway.

jesse_cooper24d ago

Doesn't it feel like we're always getting told what's "unnecessary" these days? I swear, I see it everywhere now - from the grocery store blocking certain websites on their free wifi, to streaming services hiding behind extra subscriptions. It's like someone decided we can't handle making our own choices anymore, so they just make the call for us. And yeah, half the time it's probably stuff I wouldn't click anyway, but that's not really the point.

richardknight9d ago

Man, I hear you @jesse_cooper but I actually kinda see it the other way. Most of the time when something gets blocked or hidden its just the obvious stuff nobody really needs - like gambling sites or sketchy download pages that'd give your phone a virus. The store wifi thing bugs me too sometimes, but honestly I've never needed to hit up a casino site while grabbing milk, you know? I guess my point is, yeah the principle is annoying, but in practice these filters are usually just saving us from the worst of the internet. The streaming thing is different though, thats just companies being greedy, not trying to protect anyone.