Coronavirus Update: As You Live And Play Virtually, Be Careful Not To Tax Your Internet Service
EAST ORANGE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Living in a virtual world is helping so many of us stay connected, entertained and active during this new norm of social distancing.
However, the demand for online services could be slowing down your internet, CBS2's Cory James reported Thursday.
In this time of crisis due to the coronavirus outbreak, being quarantined at home for New York resident Emily Curl is not a problem.
"Thank God for Netflix, thank God for Hulu even. My roommates and I have been having watch parties every night," Curl said.
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It's even bearable for Trey Pasquariello, who lives in Brooklyn. When he is not using his niece as a human weight as part of his workout, he is doing exercises posted on social media sites like Instagram.
"I follow many different fitness accounts and so a lot of them obviously now are doing how you can do at-home workouts. So, I will basically screen shot those different workouts," Pasquariello said. "But it has been nice having all of that content on Instagram, seeing all of these fitness people promote their workouts and encouraging people to do the same at home."
Even businesses are finding success in this virtual world.
Yoga Mechanics in Montclair, N.J. is one of many studios and gyms offering online sessions for members. Owners Daryl Ferrara and his wife, Omni, said going digital is also helping them keep their staff and instructors employed.
"Essentially, they have their own setup at their house that they set up -- they set up their camera and mic -- and they log in 15 minutes prior to class time," Daryl said. "And we get them set up. We make them a spotlight video and then they teach as as if they are in the studio."
"We're trying to keep as much normalcy as we can. We're trying to stay steady," Omni added.
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New York City-based internet security specialist Justin Massey told CBS2 with so many people using WiFi, internet providers are tasked with fixing network delays. As those adjustments are being made, he has tips on how you can weather the connectivity storm.
"If you are streaming multiple videos at one time, say you have someone watching Netflix, someone watching Hulu, that's going to be eating up a lot of your usage, so maybe you can just drop it down to one at a time," Massey said. "The next thing you can do is download videos rather than streaming them live. If you're working from home and you need to make an important business call, maybe not make that over the internet but maybe your cellphone provider's internet and that will free up some usage for your home."
If you do that, keep in mind what type of data plan you have with your wireless carrier, because chances are you do not want to see added service fees on your next billing statement.
