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Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

We had an outage in our internet Tuesday as we were busy getting the newspaper laid out and on the pages.

One minute I was working on preparing some photos for the newspaper, and the next I turned to check something on my email and discovered the internet wasn’t working. 

My first thought was that it was Election Day, and I hope it didn’t set us too far behind. It was already going to be a late night, and not having the internet is critical to our business.  

Without panicking too much, I decided to rearrange a few things in my schedule and went out and voted and then took some photos at one of the polling places for the newspaper. 

I got back to the office, and nothing had changed. 

While we could still use our computers, anything to do with the internet — including our server — was not working. 

With the increased incorporation of technology into our daily lives, we sometimes forget how much we rely on it with our lives and our work. 

I get up almost every day and typically within the first 30 minutes of being awake I get on my laptop — or at least my phone — and check my email and social media to make sure nothing major happened overnight while I was sleeping. 

I can post stories to the newspaper website from home and remote connect to my work computer from home or anywhere with an internet connection as long as I have my laptop. If my son is sick or my family is in quarantine, I can still work from home. 

Technology really is phenomenal and has created a lot of conveniences for us, so when that convenience disappears and we’re left without it, it’s quite an adjustment. 

When I think about the positives of technology, I also think about some of the negatives technology has created. 

We probably spend less time with our families and friends, get less overall physical activity and spend less time out in nature. We probably also have more anxiety from the 24/7 world we live in. 

While technology is supposed to save us time, it’s ironic that we seem to be busier than ever. 

But how do we live without it?

That’s the question I wish I knew the answer to on days like this. 

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.