Broadband: The right to wi-fi? There’s a scene in one of my favourite movies, ‘This is 40’ where the parents say they don’t spend enough time together as a family so they’re going to “get rid of the wi-fi” and have a hard line in the kitchen that will be allowed daily from 8- 8.30pm. The teenager freaks out! “You can’t get rid of the wi-fi” she panics.
It’s a scene that parents of teens and tweens will relate to. These days our kids are being brought up in a world with social media all around – they don’t know any different. They see their right to wi-fi as a fundamental in the way they’d expect to be bought their school uniform and require dinner money. In fact, here’s a great tip for parents – if you want your children to do their chores or as a means of discipline, simply change the wi-fi password at the router and only give it to them when they’ve completed their jobs or homework!
There are many home broadband options to choose from but BT Infinity is worth a look. As a family our broadband is hugely important both for work (my husband and I are both self employed) and for our togetherness as a family. We love to have a family movie night where we’ll download a movie to enjoy together. Plus my daughter has been enjoying shows on Netflix like Orange is the New Black and Pretty Little Liars, through our home broadband connection.
It’s funny when I think back to how I consumed movies and entertainment when I was a teen. Our kids have the world at their fingertips – they can get books without going to a library or bookstore and can find out about any movie ever made and watch it or search by their favourite actor to see what film they might want to see.
On a boring Sunday afternoon when I was a teen, I used to have to get the bus into town to go to the nearest Blockbuster Video store where I’d spend at least half an hour browsing the racks of videos to rent. A lot of the latest releases would have a plastic marker over the sleeve of the box to signify that the movie was unavailable – all the copies had already been rented (do you remember that?!) Then when I finally made my selection I could rent the film for £2.50 for a 24 hour period – I’d get the bus home to watch the film and then I’d have to make the round trip on the bus the next day to return the movie!! This was the 1990’s – we had to be dedicated to see our movies back then – effort was involved.
So the next time anyone in the family complains of buffering or is impatient with the download speed – remember the 90’s! These days we can access what we want – when we want it, as long as no-one has changed the wi-fi password!