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Are Peace And Serenity Gone Forever?
Too many online accounts make for a life of constant checking
Back in 1995, when I was in my late teenage years, I went travelling around Europe with my brother. We began in Paris, moved onto Brussels and Amsterdam, then over to Prague via Berlin.
After that, we went south through the glades of Italy and the groves of Greece. We made friends with other travellers, some Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Dutch and South Africans. We drank from bottles of cheap wine beneath the Eiffel Tower. In early morning Barcelona we roamed the streets in inebriated elation.
Internet cafés were popping up everywhere, often in disused shops or in hostel lobbies. In one such place, a long-haired Australian showed me how to create my very first email account so that I could send messages home and contact the minuscule list of contacts I had scribbled in my notebook.
As we met other travellers, I appended my list with more newly-generated email addresses, so that we could arrange to meet up again if our paths ever crossed. The list grew from about 4 people to 12.
Memories of those travels return to me every now and again, and I think of them with a deep sense of fondness. Sometimes, I scroll to the dusty back-pages of that primitive email account and…
