Year Without Internet

[Evil Eye]

We are using the Internet wrong. Smartphones turn people into horrible listeners. And cat videos aren't as riveting as we think they are.

These are just some of the revelations writer Paul Miller had during a year of self-imposed exile from the Internet.

Miller came back online May 1 after giving up the Internet for a year and documenting his experiences for tech site The Verge. After a nerve-wracking start (including finding 22,000 e-mails in his inbox), Miller is settling comfortably back into the Web's black hole of information and nonstop chatter.

We talked to Miller about what he learned on the other side, what's changed online in the past year, and how his dream of being a cyborg won't involve Google Glass.

What did you imagine going offline was going be like?

I thought it would be a ton of real practical hilarious hijinks. Oh, I couldn't find this place on Google Maps, or I don't have Wikipedia, or I have to send a real letter. I really thought that's what the Internet was to me, mostly those little practical things.

What was the actual experience like?

Existential and introspective. I really learned a lot about myself. I did have a lot of free time, but a lot of it was loneliness and boredom in ways that I hadn't really experienced before.

Early on that was a real inspiration. There were times I would realize my mind was in really cool places, having thought processes that are hard to have when you're on the Internet and the same news and information cycle as everybody else. I read some books I would have never read, and wrote some stuff I would have never written.

I was a little bit out of the loop, in a good way, and I really enjoyed that. But it was really easy to sink in on myself and be withdrawn from people because it was just a little harder to get a hold of people, a little harder to make plans, and a little easier for me to just hide from the world and stay in my apartment and play video games.

Full article: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/10/tech/web/paul-miller-internet-year/


I can't say I'm too impressed with the things he's learned...

 

[Crusader]

I don't know what I'd do without the Internet.

 

[DrLeftover]

I don't watch 'cat videos', I don't habitually "like stuff" on myfacegbookplusspace, and this is the only forum I routinely post on. And I just spent three days without being able to check my email (my 'phone' is many things, none of them being "smart") and I didn't have a panic attack.

But the Net is part of my life. Like a cordless drill. It is a tool that has its place to make my overall life better. It is not "life itself".

At least not to me.

 

[JetWing34]

Without the Internet, I wouldn't be entertained through music and I wouldn't laugh myself off from Microsoft Sam reading computer errors and funny signs.

There would also be no way to find non-profit road races, and it would be impossible to stay connected with your friends from school who moved far away from where you live unless you have a phone number and call from dusk until dawn.

 

[Raven]

Oh my god yes!! Where can I sign my self up! Me and my mum were discussing this the other night, how the internet overrules peoples lives. And smart phones. I'm looking forward to having my contract up on my phone to get a standard phone with just phone calls and text.

I'm spending more and more time offline these days, I come on, post abit then go off, can't be bothered spending hours upon hours on facebook, twitter, youtube, forums. So much of my life so far has beeen wasted on sitting at a computer doing FA!

I always used to hate the idea of no internet, now I actually like the idea. In a few weeks we are getting a Ti Pi for the garden, so I think i'll be off here even more.

 

[JetWing34]

America should put a permanent ban on the Internet. That's what I think.

 

[Crusader]

America should put a permanent ban on the Internet. That's what I think.

The Internet is one of the most important resources we have access to.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I grew up without internet or a mobile until I was in my 20's so I suppose I'd be alright without it. Ive spent way more of my life without internet than with it.

 

[Evil Eye]

I don't know what I'd do without the Internet.

Take lots of pictures?

Oh my god yes!! Where can I sign my self up!

That'd be entirely up to you.

 

[Success]

I don't know what I'd do without the Internet.

Neither do I. It wouldn't be the same

 

[Andrew Darmac]

I was used to not using it for the first fifteen years of my life. I was perfectly fine before that.

I join the forum scene after that. While I manage well without forums (I hadn't partaken in them for over three years), I do find the Internet is a useful resource for research on any topic, and often use it for that. So I'd much rather not be without it for the sake of research.

 

[DrLeftover]

America should put a permanent ban on the Internet. That's what I think.

Talk to those that know better what is good for the rest of us than we do ourselves.

There's five hundred and some of them in Washington DC.

They're called "Congress".

 

[Ashley]

I grew up without internet or a mobile until I was in my 20's so I suppose I'd be alright without it. Ive spent way more of my life without internet than with it.

Same here. I didn't get my first cell phone till I was sixteen. We didn't get our first family computer till 2003, and I didn't get my first email address till 2006, and I didn't get involved with forums until 2007 or 2008. So having gone most of my life with only being on the computer at school and just playing computer games at home, I could probably go without Internet again if I had to. It'd be hard to get used to at first, of course, but as I grew up without a computer, it wouldn't be so bad.

 

[Flurry]

I'd hate to be with out Internet.

 

[Nikki]

If I was traveling the world for a year, I wouldn't miss it for a second. Since that's never going to happen, I need internet to do my job and stay in contact with old friends.

 

[DCoach_M]

I could probably do without it. It would just get me to do other things.

 

[Amiga]

You use the internet for what you need to use the internet for.. I don't know what people think we're going to use the internet for, but everyone has different means.

Some people are quite thick, and the extent they require the internet for is to see what they're friends are up to and press a like button.

Others will use it to research genetics or quantum theory.

I use it for the part of me that is thick/sociable; keeping in touch with friends, in addition to assisting in my design work, allowing me to publish said work across the internet, and view artworks of others.

...And porn.