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So I’m on a Delta flight to MSY this morning, a departure (no pun intended) from my usual Continental allegiance. Was the only flight I could get.
I’m trying their WiFi in the Sky service, $9.95 per shot, or a pre-purchased pass. Service quality so far is excellent, no complaints. Thanks to GoGoInFlight.com – Great service, hideously chosen name.
Anyhow… I’m not sure if I like it. Here’s why.
My normal routine on a plane: Blow through 400 emails, make a dent in my inbox. Watch a movie or catch up on a TV show thanks to TiVo to Go. Delete files. Clean out my Mac. Read various magazines I’ve brought on board. It’s a good routine for me. It works for me. Why?
Without Internet, I’m forced to do specific tasks, and complete them. For me, “no connection” is my Adderal. It forces me to do exactly what I say I’m going to do, and not take 30 seconds to check out the new Tweet that just came in, or the new email that just dinged, or “hey, I wonder what the LOLcats are doing.” I have to work. I have no choice. Distractions are minimized to micro-levels.
For those who don’t know, I wrote my book on a non-stop flight to Tokyo and back. Chapters 1-9 out, 10-19 back. It worked for me. Did exactly what I needed it to do.
Surprisingly, most highly-functioning ADHD people like myself (or ADOS, as it were) are quite into specific routine, in some specific instances, almost to a Sheldon Cooper-like way. I know exactly how many emails I can ignore in the morning, because I have an afternoon flight and will get them done. I know that I can miss three episodes of 24, because I have six hours in the air to catch up on them. It simply WORKS.
Knowing that WiFi exists in my mid-air cocoon changes all of that. The simple fact that I CAN connect, whether I want to, or whether I will or not, well, that changes things. Now, I have a choice. Choice, while fundamentally good for a society, can be bad in these kind of situations.
For people like me, it’s either all or nothing – I had nothing on the plane – therefore, I had to work. Now? I dunno… My “work” might be interrupted by… “Hey, let’s see what various people are tweeting. It’s not as cut and dry.
Perhaps, no matter how ADHD we all are, we all crave some form of normalcy, even if for me, it’s just those few hours in a thin metal tube, hurtling through the air at 500 miles per hour, with no connectivity.
Thoughts? Like the in-air WiFi? Leave a comment.
