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We’re suffering from really poor network degradation from our internet service provider this week, as a result of them working on network “upgrades”. You forget how much you take for granted until you’re faced with constant go-slows and time-outs.

Yesterday was particularly tricky, for the kids were home, apparently with school work to do while their teachers were engaged in an inset training day. Every time they logged on, my own internet connection would grind to a halt, undermining my efforts to get work done.

Glancing over their screens, the problem really puzzled me. All they seemed to be doing was accessing their homework website and working on a few files offline. Still, by the afternoon when I had training to deliver, I had to ask them to log off their computers to provide me enough bandwidth to share my screen with colleagues.

It wasn’t until late evening that it occurred to me why I was being knocked off the internet whenever the kids logged on. It turned out that they were streaming Spotify in the background every time they connected. The daft things had never considered that streaming might consume valuable data.

Of course, in normal circumstances when we’re averaging over 200Mbps download speeds, that’s not a problem. But during a week of maintenance, and an inset day, when presumably the entire neighbourhood’s kids are also competing for bandwidth while doing homework and/or streaming YouTube, Spotify and Xbox games, and you’re hitting maximum network speeds of 2Mbsp, it’s quite an issue.

Generation stream expect everything to be available on demand, much as we’re accustomed to running water and an uninterrupted electricity supply. All of us have forgotten those early days of the web, waiting on a dial-up internet connection. Certainly, I take my 5G internet for granted in enabling me to work from home with ease, usually far more productively than I could in the office.

But as for the kids: I feel another luddite urge coming on. No, I’m not going to force them to use cassettes and an old Walkman. But perhaps I will have them downloading MP3 files onto an offline device, so they can listen to whatever it is they want to listen to, without feeling compelled to pretend to be doing homework for the privilege.

Pity the poor kids lumbered by a tech nerd dad, capable of extending the life of gadgetry long after most people would have consigned it to landfill. Despite a job in tech, I’m of another generation altogether. The last to experience youth before the web, still capable of appreciating the slowness of life without demanding instant gratification. Back in our day, and all that.