An Internet outage across the Watsonia area has offered a raw and troubling insight into the soul of many local residents. With tensions already simmering in many households, yesterday’s connection issues brought things to boiling point as many families attempted to juggle working from home, educating their school-age children, and accessing the many streaming services that have become our one and only source of entertainment during lockdown.

Households across Watsonia and neighbouring suburbs were filled with conversations about modems, routers, Wi-Fi, Optus, and the meaning of life this morning, as residents faced the daunting prospect of another day without reliable fixed internet access. One such resident contacted The Watsonia Bugle to say she saw a side of her husband that she’d never seen before.

The anonymous woman said, “I’ve know my husband for 15 years, but this morning I peered through the window of his soul to see a room I’d never seen before. It was raw. There was fire and anger. There was a pure rage that I didn’t think could exist inside a human being. 2020 has been a challenge for all of us, but there’s something about removing a modern person’s access to the internet that touches a nerve like nothing else.”

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