Parks Canada announced that it is looking for bids for contractors to install WiFi Hotspots in up to 50 of it’s parks this year. Now just so you know…that doesn’t necessarily mean campgrounds as Parks Canada has 44 National Parks, 167 National Historic Sites, 4 Marine Conservation Areas and 1 National Urban Park. The reasons people have given though are, what I think, a picture of what society is like now. People want to be able to:
- Keep connected to work
- Keep connected to friends and family
- Keep in touch with the daily news
- Give you a play-by-play of what they are doing (hello Twitter and Foursquare)
- To plan on the go (weather bulletins, road maps, directions) and to monitor their home security.
Some of these reasons are valid like connecting with family or being able to plan on the go…you never know what the weather is going to do and you need to be able to change plans. However, I go away to Algonquin to get away from work….I may receive texts while I’m there but I ignore them until I get home. I am one to tweet or check-in while I’m in Algonquin if the cell service allows me to but I blog about the park and I want people to know the various things they can do. That being said…if I don’t have service I don’t worry about it.
This decision though makes me wonder about the future of WiFi in Algonquin and it’s got me thinking….why can’t we just take the opportunity to disconnect from the world around us and connect with our families? To me it’s a no brainer kind of question as I grew up when there were no cell phones, other than the huge Motorola’s, or WiFi. We played outside until the street lights came on and we went camping every summer, all summer as a family.
How do you feel about this?