It’s amazing how quickly we become entitled to new technological advances. Back in 2008 Louis C.K. had a bit on the Conan O’Brien late night show about airplane wifi and how despite the miracle of actually having wifi on an airplane we still have the gall to complain about the speed.

My modern equivalent is global roaming. I have T-Mobile which offers free global roaming as part of their standard plan and it’s amazing being able to travel that way. So much of the modern world’s amenities depend on being online at any time that I can’t imagine traveling without it. Using Uber or Lyft would be significantly more difficult. Same for the electric scooter rental apps that require scanning a QR code. Or just being able to quickly look up your location to figure out where you are and how to get to your destination.

All of these are surmountable by findign a nearby wifi spot or talking to a stranger but it’s just so much more convenient with a constantly-on internet connection. And despite T-Mobile offering global data for free I can’t help but complain that it’s just too slow at the offered 2G speeds. I can still do everything I need but it just takes longer and I’m not used to it. Yet only a few years ago I remember having to constantly be on the lookout for places with wifi just to be able to go online. It really is the modern day version of slow plane wifi.