Dependency can be a very ugly thing. It can beunhealthy, limiting and has the potential to be very debillitating. Yet, I continue to hold on to this specific crutch with a mighty determination and utter lackof independent thinking.

What is this ‘monkey on my back’?

The internet.

My husband has been employedin the internet technology field since graduating from his high schoolpizza schlepping days. And, although it seems like World Wide Access has been here since the beginning of time, I remember a point in my life where this handy dandy little tool wasn’t a part of my existance.

A blissful time, really.An existance where communication was handled via regular mail and/or phone calls. An existance where there was no driving need to ‘update my status’ on Facebook or ‘fertilize my neighbor’s carrots’ on Farmville. An existance where I wasn’trequired to spend 10 minutes of my time reorganizing the numerous “You’re Special To Me” messages in my email inbox.

An existance where instance knowledge was not at my fingertips and I was actually expected to learn and retain information.

This latter fact became obvious and apparent over the last few days as my hubby and I were finding ourselves with little to no internet access due to a failing router (oooh…impressed? Ten years married to a tech geek has at least garnered me that one bit of vocabulary.)

And the kids have never before wanted to know more information that is not already stored into my overly-packed brain.

“Mom, why do leprachauns wear green?” “Mom, how does the rain come out of the clouds?” “Mom, how old is Barney? (that one was Jack)”

Normally, I would race to my handy-dandy little Samsung Netbook and look it up…but this week I was left with “Umm…umm…well, let’s see…” No internet access and not a frickin’ encyclopedia in sight!

“Jeremy!” I was forced to yell. “Where are our encyclopedias at?”

“What?”

“Our encyclopedias?!” I repeated.

“Mindy, we don’t have any encyclopedias. I”m pretty sure they stopped making those in the early 90’s.”

“Straight from the mouth of an internet-worshiper, Jer. They did not stop making encyclopedias at the onset of the World Wide Web. Some people still believe in getting their information from books and not Wikipedia,” I said.

“And, you, are one of those people, Mindy? When’s the last time that you cracked open an encyclopedia?” Jer asked.

Hmmm…point taken. “Well, obviously that’s not the point (except it is) and I am in need of some information and Wikipedia is not at my fingertips, Jer.”

“You’re going to have to tell Jack you’ll get back to him with Barney’s birthday. The internet will be back up very soon,” Jer assured.

Oh, thank God.

I can’t begin to explain the feeling of calm that washed over me. We would be back on-line and back into the world of insta-knowledge in no time.

Yes. Dependency.

For all of the inconveniences of being ‘constantly connected’, I will admit there are also many conveniences attached to the luxury. I obviously appreciate having instant access to information to answer those off-the-wall questions that kids pull out of nowhere (i.e. the birth date of fictional purple dinosaurs). I absolutely love having recipes-at-the-ready from a plethora of food websites for those timesI get inspired to channel my inner Betty Crocker and I’ve grown quite attached to the glimpses into people’s lives via the blogging world.

I guess there could be worse things to be dependent upon and typically most everything is okay in moderation so I won’t be seeking any InternetAnonymous meetings as of yet. However,I am determined to invest in a set of encyclopedias for that next inevitable moment that we become disconnected.

Let’s hope they’ve covered everything…my kids are teeming with questions.

Mindy