WAP it. WAP it good.

WAP is great. E-mail, Google, CNN, Facebook, ESPN or whatever you want right in your palm. As most "great" things go there is a catch. In this case, the catch is a mobile internet addiction. "Hi guys, my name is Ian, and I'm a WAPaholic." WAP is a drug, and to be quite honest I'm surprised the DEA hasn't created a new department to adddress it. As scary as it may sound, the first thing I did upon crossing the border from Canada to the US was check my e-mail. I was driving home, still had hours to go, but couldn't resist the temptation of checking my e-mail. I don't know what I was expecting to receive on a Sunday afternoon that could have been that pressing, but I love to check the mail. I hate that I need to check my mail all the time, but I do. I think it is an epidemic with my generation. We've learned from past experience that most e-mailers expect timely responses. Therefore, we've created a situation where it is "0kay" to check the mail whenever we wish. I know this pathetic dependence on technology will somehow rear its ugly head in my life at a later date, but what about the people that cannot afford WAP? This is where the rift exists. What is going to happen when people assume everyone has their e-mail all the time. Currently, I pay $45 per month to get an unlimited data plan from Verizon Wireless. Are these astronomical rates going to persist? Is bandwidth going to lose its value? Is a company like Google going to make WAP free as long as you allow yourself to be inundated with ads? I am so confused.

High speed mobile internet will one day be available to the masses. It has to. I've read about the future, I've seen movies about the future, I've even postulated my own future, and it always has people with WAP. So what is going to change to make WAP cheaper. In my mind, the only thing holding companies like Scanbuy, Slingbox and every company that uses the internet as a delivery method back is the lack of WAP proliferation. Will this expense just be something that people add to their list of essentials? I think that is the only way. I know that WAP will come down in price, but by how much?

Let's imagine it's 2020, everyone has a smartphone. Cellphones have been dead for 8 years. Everyone is logged on all the time. Exclusivity concerning the internet or WAP for that matter is dead like a Dodo. Everyone has access. If everyone is checking their e-mail all the time, and 85% of the country finds out about the newest celebrity overdose within 2o minutes are we all addicted to WAP? If everyone uses WAP are we all addicts? Were we addicted to radio and newspapers before TV? Were we addicted to landlines before cell phones? Yes and no. Yes because you can probably classify much of human behavior as "addictive," but no because unlike real drugs, there isn't physical repercussion when refraining from WAP. We're in a time of transition, where the "haves and the have-nots" are separated. As time marches on, we'll all be on an even playing field again, where WAP is as common as a car radio. I don't know how it's going to financially occur, but I know it will. I just know it.

Have you ever seen a website completely naked?

The title of this blog comes from an inexplicable feeling I get when I see a website without any ads. In case you are unaware, there are plug-ins and 3rd party software that strip a website of their ads. Software such as Greasemonkey performs this task. A year or two ago my "super-tech" friend turned me onto some ad removing software, whether it was Greasemonkey or not I cannot recall, but I tried it immediately and was quite impressed. NYTimes.com, Facebook.com and ESPN.com were all stripped naked! I knew that this miracle potion was supposed to "make my day," but I found it to be lonely. I have become so accustomed to surfing the web with ads, that their absence didn't sit well with me. I never disclosed to him that I reverted to my "old way" of surfing, but I did. Within a day or two, I removed the software/plug-in and went back to the pedestrian method of Internet perusal. Recently, I've stumbled across a Firefox plug-in called Stylish v. 0.5.3. Supposedly, it allows you to restyle the page so you don't have to "suffer" the way I did a couple years prior. I'll give it a try soon and see if it alleviates the lonesome feeling of surfing without ads.

It's clear that people enjoy looking at familiar things. Whether it's their computer's desktop icon arrangement, or the picture frames on their dresser, everyone likes things a certain way. I'm not used to seeing an 'ad less' website. I felt left out when the ads were gone. Although I rarely am interested in the featured product, I like knowing that I am privy to and current on all that is advertised. I don't want to miss the chance that a new Subaru WRX STi or Slingbox ad might be featured. I somehow consider an ad to be the 3rd cousin once removed of 'real news.' Maybe, we the consumers, are subconsciously hoping to stumble across the next great "must have" item of the year. Maybe not.