Dreaming of the Quiet Zone
I heard this story the other day on NPR about an area in West Virgina where cell towers and WiFi signals are banned due to a giant telescope in the area. Radio, cell and other high frequency signals will mess with the telescope’s systems, so there is 13,000-square-mile area that covers the eastern half of West Virginia, which is a designated quiet zone. In this part of the country, people still go to the local library to use dial-up internet, and phone booths are common. There are actual police that will write you a ticket for using any banned device.
One resident made a comment in the piece that really spoke to me:
“It’s nice to be able to pull something out of your pocket and send a message to someone and get a response within 30 seconds or so. But I don’t know that it’s that necessary. At least it’s not around here.”
Is it weird that I’m dreaming of such a place? It’s probably even weirder, considering I make my living writing online and doing online marketing for an IT company…but I can’t help it. The thought of a disconnected life is giving me goosebumps.
What do you think, could you ever live in a place where you couldn’t have a cell phone or wireless internet? Do you want to start a commune with me? I promise, I’m less strange than I appear!
(Not.)
Photo via John W. Poole for NPR, sourced here
This is great, I would love to get away from all the cell phones and internet. This actually sounds like heaven to me, sign me up! Give me a book and a trip to the library for internet here and there and im all set 🙂
That is exactly how I have been feeling lately too! Sounds heavenly!