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 But it was really easy to sink in on myself and be withdrawn from people because it was just a little harder to get a hold of people, a little harder to make plans, and a little easier for me to just hide from the world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...