What is that Box in the Ceiling of Courtyard Cafe?

PART I

If you use your laptop at the Courtyard Cafe, you can connect to the Internet wirelessly using Wi-Fi. Where is the antenna for that? Take a photo.

PART II

In order to find this antenna, I first went to the Courtyard Café in the Union. Even thought I didn’t really know what the antenna would look like, I walked around the café looking toward the ceiling for this wireless antenna for several minutes. After this unsuccessful search, I went to the workers at the Espresso Royale and asked the managers if they knew where was the antenna for Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, they did not know so we went to the customer service desk at the front of the Union and asked the same question. They also did not know where the antenna was and referred us to someone else by phone. After asking this man the same question, he meet us in the Courtyard Café and showed me where the antenna was for the wireless internet.
I was surprised to find out that the antenna wasn’t what I thought it would look like. It was a small brown box that looked like a 12in by 12in locker box stuck on the ceiling with a little white chord coming out of it, which led to a smaller white box. For something so small to give Internet access to so many people is amazing.

PART III

After a lot of thinking and analyzing, I decided that the invention of it is mostly cultural determinism. Our society is continuously growing and changing, and with that we need a change in certain aspects of the Internet. Wi-Fi is a form of Internet technology that allows us to use the Internet anywhere without worrying about chords or plug-ins. All you need to do is be within range of the Wi-Fi antenna in order to get Internet access. Our society was in need of this technology because we are a society that's always on-the-go. That is one of the several reasons I think the invention of WI-Fi Internet is cultural determinism since, "changes in culture result in changes in technology" (46). More and more businesses are getting wireless Internet because our culture is in need of it.
Our society also relies on instant gratification, meaning that once we realize there’s something we need/want we want it as soon as possible, and Wi-Fi allows us to look up information anywhere on anything at the exact moment we need or want to. Another example of a communication technology that has given society instant gratification is the cell phone. No matter where we are or what time it is, we can talk to whoever we want instantly just dialing a few numbers. Overall, our society's constant evolution process has brought about the invention of wireless Internet; therefore, making the invention of wireless Internet is cultural determinism.

Wi-Fi Antenna at Courtyard Cafe
Wi-Fi Antenna at Courtyard Cafe #2