If you are at home right now, the very fact that you are reading this article means that the internet at home has already changed the way you live. Before the internet was in every home, we had to go out into the world to see what was on offer. We had to contend with the physical limitations of time and local access. Our world was very small and our possibilities limited. With the internet in our homes, the world comes to us. Limitations are reduced. And we are presented with endless possibilities.
It obviously starts by sorting through the plethora of wireless internet plans on offer. When it comes to choices we have an embarrassment of riches. It comes down to understanding concepts like internet speed, data caps, bandwidth needs, and the like. Making informed decisions is the key to expanding your world from the confines of your home. Once you do, here are a few of the possibilities available without you even leaving the bedroom:
Work
It has never been easier to work from home. A writer’s workflow from thinking, to writing, to sharing can be done without opening the front door or licking a single stamp. And writers are not the only ones who benefit from home employment via the internet.
Thanks to VoIP, virtual printing and faxing, secure VPNs, document sharing, project collaboration software, and virtual meetings, almost anyone in the corporate space can do every aspect of their day job without having to go to the office or travel for a meeting. People with disabilities have more access to work because rather than having to go to an office, the office can come to them. The internet at home has put more people to work than a decade of government stimulus packages.
News and Entertainment
There is more to news and entertainment than what you can get from the cable companies. Television is far from dead. But it is no longer the only option in your home for the latest and best news and entertainment. Nevermind the On-demand hoops you have to jump through with the big cable. Services like Hulu and Netflix let you watch your favorite shows anytime, anywhere, and on any device you wish without restrictions.
Online news sites offer a far richer and diverse experience than the most generous cable package. You get the best of print as well as video journalism. You get multiple sources of local and world news. And the news comes much faster, and is therefore more relevant than what the major TV outlets can bring you.
If you want to go beyond CNN and Fox News to something like the AP, Reuters, and Al Jazeera, you need the internet at home and on your mobile devices. If you really want to get out of the spin zone, you need more sources of quality information. The internet at home helps us to know what is really going on around the corner and across the world.
Education
There was a time when if you wanted to understand Einstein’s theory of relativity, you had to enroll into college. Today, you can visit a half a dozen free sites and watch a YouTube video. You can find a discussion board and chat live with real people who actually know what they are talking about. You can learn high-concept philosophy for no better reason than the fact that you were bored, and had a couple of days to waste.
If you want to do something even more useful with that extra bandwidth, you can enroll into a university and complete your degree without leaving the comforts of home. These days, there is much less of a stigma surrounding online degrees. Top companies will be happy to hire you over the hoards of applicants with no degree at all.
There was a time when the internet was limited to the government. It was in the category of spy satellites and weapons of mass destruction – off limits to the average person. Today, we can work, keep up with events, and gain an education without leaving home. And it only gets better from here.
