8 ms·

I'm leaving the Internet for a year

139 points by Braasch 14y ago

graeme 14y ago
That's a fascinating experiment. I just tried 30 days without the internet (at home). But I still used it in cafes, whereas Paul is disconnecting completely. I think he's going to find many little points of friction that he wasn't expecting. So many non-internet exchanges now end with "sure, send me an email" or "Sure, just go to our website and..." The infrastructure to serve non-web users still exists, but it's fading. I personally decided to go back to the internet. I'm doing an online course with Udacity; cafe bandwidth didn't cut it. If I were just doing writing, I actually would go without a home internet connection. It's a much more productive system if your work doesn't require access. But my work now does, and there was too much friction. If I were doing technology writing, like Paul...well, I'd love to know how this turns out.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  For many things (In the UK at least) there is still a non Internet infrastructure for interfacing with things like Government departments and banks. But many other times there simply is not, I remember a few years ago (maybe around 2007) job hunting and asking for an application form and being told that all applications had to be made online. Also for some of the systems I have developed we have ended up using email address as a uniquely identifying piece of information for each customer which basically means that it is a mandatory field whenever a record in the DB is created and I would guess many others have done so too.
- there 14y ago
  Maybe some day we'll have public phone-to-Internet relays where you call an operator and tell them to navigate a website and read it back to you, like the text-to-phone relays the deaf use.
  - unimpressive 14y ago
    I like this idea. However, one must take into account the cost of having a human-operator read back a website to you. Maybe as synthesized speech improves you could have a viable service like this using computer programs as the operator. It'd be one way to cut back on your Internet addiction. You'll certainly reevaluate the worth of online discussions when you have to actually listen to them play out while you sit there.
crusso 14y ago
Maybe he should ditch electricity and plumbing too? I mean, if you're going to figure out how this one technology has infested your soul, why not go all the way? I'm sure there are some Amish* communities that would take you in and let you hammer some nails while you get back to your non-technological inner being. * That's always what they seem to do in movies to the point of being a cliche.
- Cushman 14y ago
  Is this a serious suggestion? It reads like you're mocking him, which is pretty uncalled for, but I can't be sure.
  - crusso 14y ago
    I wouldn't call it serious or mocking, rather I'd call it whimsical speculation designed to generate conversation. I find your attempt to suppress my whimsical speculation designed to generate conversation to be pretty uncalled for.
    - Cushman 14y ago
      I didn't read it as whimsical; I was originally going to write something like "You're quitting smoking? Are you going to quit coffee, too?" It struck me as pretty harsh. I do think there's legitimate value to the idea-- I'd bet most people would be a lot happier without electricity or indoor plumbing than we'd imagine. But I think if somebody decided to try it for a year, a guy saying "No electricity, huh? Are you gonna stop cooking your food, or are you just doing like a halfway thing?" would sound like an asshole. Also, what gives with calling my good-faith request for clarification an "attempt to suppress" you? I could have just downvoted you and moved on if that's what I wanted.
      - polyfractal 14y ago
        > I do think there's legitimate value to the idea-- I'd bet most people would be a lot happier without electricity or indoor plumbing than we'd imagine. I think only someone who has grown up with both of those advances would be able to make this comment with a straight face. Ask anyone who has nearly frozen to death in the winter because they couldn't afford their electricity bill what they think of that statement. Or anyone who nearly died from cholera because of drinking from the nearest river due to no water utilities what they think of that statement. I'm not writing this to be hostile. It is simply a statement that the "good ol' days" were not really so good afterall.
ctdonath 14y ago
I spent 20 years without Internet. I'll give it up when you pry my unlimited-3G iPad from my cold dead fingers. (Until then, I'll be figuring out how to have it surgically implanted.)
tptacek 14y ago
It's been done before: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/life_without_the_web/my_probably_crazy_plan_to_give_up_the_internet.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/lif...
- gsivil 14y ago
  I will be running the marathon under three hours. Top comment: It has been done before
  - danellis 14y ago
    You seem to be interpreting the comment as suggesting that there is no point in the endeavor. It can equally be read as simply offering another perspective or showing what might be expected.
    - tptacek 14y ago
      I was being a little dismissive.
      - jasonshen 14y ago
        Way to be honest! =)
MattGrommes 14y ago
Sheesh, what a pain in the ass this will be. Not paying bills online, not making plans over email, etc., etc. The idea of not letting "the Internet" into unknown corners of your life is fine but I do the same thing by _paying attention_. This reminds of the regular Information Overload articles that get written about how the writer has too much stuff to pay attention to. When I read those I always think "you're doing it wrong". Control your technology, don't let your technology control you.
- icebraining 14y ago
  Control your technology, don't let your technology control you. Or the lack of it.
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  > Not paying bills online, not making plans over email, etc., etc. If he's married, I'd wager 90% of those things will still get done over the internet; but instead of clicking a mouse, he'll ask his wife.
  - cocoflunchy 14y ago
    I think the part where he says: ["Internet use" includes web browsing from any device, asking anyone to web browse for me, surfing the internet over someone's shoulder] means that he won't ask someone to do it for him...
    - thebigshane 14y ago
      He also mentions it in the very first paragraph: I just won't use the internet in my personal or work life, and won't ask anyone to use it for me.
- mst 14y ago
  My bills pay themselves via variable direct debit, most of which I set up over the phone.
augmentech 14y ago
The following services are best done via internet and will be full of friction to substitute an alternative: 1. Remote desktop sharing and web conference calls 2. Remote learning / webinars 3. Bank transactions (web banking) for bill pay, instant wires and archived bank statements, etc. Yes, a phone call to the 1-800 could work, except for payments and immediately available bank statements. 4. Music video of the latest Rebecca Black hit exclusively available on Youtube only (lol right?) 4. 4.
- adestefan 14y ago
  3. Bank transactions (web banking) for bill pay, instant wires and archived bank statements, etc. We used to put these things called checks into little paper envelops. We then put an inexpensive stamp onto them an deposited them in mailboxes. About 3 days later our bills were magically paid. In all honesty does anyone actually have hard numbers on the number of people that actually use online bill pay? I'll willing to bet that a larger number of people still pay via a mailed check.
  - dragonsky 14y ago
    Maybe in the US and for business transactions, but the remainder of the world seems to have taken to online and automated phone payments almost exclusively.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
dm8 14y ago
Couple of years back I hiked in Himalayas and there was no access to Internet for 15 days. Not just Internet but no cell phones, TVs, iPod etc. For first 3-4 days when we were still in rural towns of India, we had electricity but after that we had no access to electricity. I must say it was the best experience of my life. I don't think I missed anything at all. As far as author goes, 1 year is a really long time. I'd love to hear after 1 year.
- kelnos 14y ago
  I don't think 15 days is enough to get over the initial novelty and "honeymoon period" to be really sure it's so great. After all, you're here now, back on the internet, posting on HN. It is a good indicator that all of us could probably stand to gain from unplugging for a while every now and then.
- InclinedPlane 14y ago
  It's one thing to go on a vacation and cut yourself off. It's another thing to cut yourself off for the day to day grind.
  - personlurking 14y ago
    Here's one guy's experience of life (5 months of travels through Africa) before cell phones and, in general, most modern technology. http://www.quora.com/Mobile-Phones/What-was-daily-life-like-before-almost-everyone-had-cell-phones http://www.quora.com/Mobile-Phones/What-was-daily-life-like-...
    - mattm 14y ago
      That's a great story. I went to Nairobi in 2004 and had the opportunity to stay with host families for three months. In 2004 there, slow Internet was available in Internet cafes for about $1/hr and some people had cell phones but mostly a family would have one and share it amongst them. Because the landline phones were so poor due to government monopoly, many people didn't even bother using them. It was common for friends to just suddenly show up at your home. It would have been the same way in the Western world before telephones. For me, it was pretty nice. Everything seemed much more social and there was much more spontaneity on a daily basis instead of everything requiring planning. Now that cell phones are more common there, I have no idea if people still just show up at friend's homes. Unfortunately, I would assume it would be something that will die away.
edwinnathaniel 14y ago
I recently spent 5 days without cable and internet connection (that's not quite true, I had internet connection of a total 4 hours) but I have activities so I'm not bored to death. It feels, relieving at that time. It feels that life can be simpler. Maybe I'll do that again soon....
mortenjorck 14y ago
Having followed Paul's writing for awhile, I feel like I get where he's coming from and what he hopes to do with this endeavor. I really respect that. But I still have to question the viability, and ultimately the value, of this honestly rather extreme abstentionism. If he were moving to a village in Thailand, things would be different – he'd be surrounded by people who don't need the internet, and the society he'd be living in wouldn't expect him to use it. But, as far as I can tell, he's staying in NYC. The penalty for disconnecting is going to be disproportionately greater there than it would be in a society that doesn't expect even its homeless to be able to get government forms from an internet-connected computer in a public library. He can try to live in New York circa 1992, but he's ultimately going to be expected to live in New York 2012. I think a more productive self-denial would be to limit one's internet usage to libraries and internet cafes. Cancel the FiOS and 4G, divorce yourself from Twitter and email, but leave the option open of making a trip down to the library to take care of the things in your daily life that actually require the internet.
- tomjen3 14y ago
  Oh absolutely. My parents moved to city that they had never been to at about that time. My mom had to call the directory to ask for realtor so they could find some place to live. It was back when people actually used the phonebook to look up phone-numbers. It is that long ago. Today almost none of the tech in available. Payphones still exist, but you have to know where they are -- and they are not exactly cheap. Heck he can't even buy stuff at a supermarket, since those computers are almost certainly wired to send the purchase information back to be mined for data. And that wasn't unheard of back then. Today? Do they even have a directory anymore?
- cjoh 14y ago
  Agreed. If he's looking to "disconnect" it'd be more interesting to see him also go rural for a year.
  - zmmz 14y ago
    I disagree. I think we all know that it's possible to "go rural". Many have done it. What Paul is doing is far more interesting and valuable to him as a tech journalist. I see this as a research project, not as a rejection of the web. To quote: > Now I want to see the internet at a distance. By separating myself from the constant connectivity, I can see which aspects are truly valuable, which are distractions for me, and which parts are corrupting my very soul. What I worry is that I'm so "adept" at the internet that I've found ways to fill every crevice of my life with it, and I'm pretty sure the internet has invaded some places where it doesn't belong. He will still live in NYC, still write tech articles, but by disconnecting he will constantly have some distance from the material. I will be happy to read his observations on the field around him through his new perspective.
carguy1983 14y ago
Life before the internet was incredibly boring most of the time. You spent the majority of your free time figuring out ways to wring the most value from the 10% of time spent doing actual things with actual people. A lot of it was filled with TV and moving around needlessly (to get things, to send things, to be somewhere at a certain time to pick up the phone...). It really sucked.
- narrator 14y ago
  One thing about life before the Internet was that social connections were used for finding out information. Nowadays people just go on the Internet and find it. Knowing a lot about a lot of things doesn't really count for much. I used to program Macs in the 90s and you'd get these big old Inside Mac books and maybe a good Primer book and if you got stuck, there was no stack overflow. You just had to go ask somebody. People maintained friendships because they might need information from that person. Now that's become totally obsolete.
  - aaronblohowiak 14y ago
    I just find the questions I get asked are more interesting.
    - noonespecial 14y ago
      I used to get asked things that were effectively trivia, now I get asked things that are more about discernment.
- drostie 14y ago
  I thought that this attitude was sufficiently funny that I decided to put it into a Philosoraptor image, which I think is reasonably appropriate: http://drostie.org/before_lolcats.jpg http://drostie.org/before_lolcats.jpg
  - ars 14y ago
    You've been here long enough to know that this kind of stuff is not desired here.
Meiscooldude 14y ago
Hehe, I have that old Nokia he was looking at in the shop. Dumbphones rock!
nerdfiles 14y ago
For the past couple of months I've lived without iPhone (with Prompt and Textastic) or phone for that matter (except for the occasional Skype call). I've tried to restrict my development and general Web usage to ~2 hours a day. I recall bumping into a colleague at around 3-4a.m. We had a smoke and then he got called away to do tech support on some web app he had been contractually obligated to support. Given experiences like that, and my previous work schedule: In the meantime, I've played in the park; re-learned futball to where I can perform advanced, intensive dribbling; re-experienced my long distance running regimen with old friends; progressively mastered the track bike (in complex traffic scenarios, track standing, skid stops, heel stops, etc.); re-organized my thoughts in ordinary language philosophy, contemporary neuroscience, quantum mechanics, Wittgenstein and Spinoza; I've begun a semi-daily writing activity; longboarding; road tripping; skipping stones; befriending animals; etc. These are the activities which contrast with $ pip install -r reqs.txt or reading another API or vim or bash scripting. But what else have I noticed? Daily I sit underneath the Texas sun, and watch. I watch people use these devices. I see IE everywhere and hours upon hours of people fumbling with that. Or texting. Playing some app or Twitter. It's beautiful, as I sit under the sun, silent. It upsets me how so many able bodies opt for such narrowly prescribed lifestyle. This argument often turns into ad hominem or red herring involving luddites, Amish, throwbacks, vintagers, etc.. But this text-based lifestyle is a choice too, you know, regardless of how "technologically savvy" or "liberated" or "autonomous" or "anonymous" one is.
- guywithabike 14y ago
  What's your job / how do you pay your bills?
  - nerdfiles 14y ago
    Freelance front-end development. Python mostly.
- olalonde 14y ago
  Lots of applause lights in there (http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/). I'm pretty sure things are not nearly as bad as you seem to believe.
macco 14y ago
Good luck!
Havoc 14y ago
I get the part about not using the internet. Easy enough. But not using the internet & still getting stuff done? That I'd like to see.
wavephorm 14y ago
This reminds me of that guy about 10 or 15 years ago, who made some amazing claim that that he was going to live in his house, sustaining himself entirely from work he did and things he bought from the internet for a year. And then basically everyone forgot about it. I don't even know how that ended. The truth is nobody really cares. Stay on the internet, don't use the internet... nobody cares.
ThomPete 14y ago
The first time I moved to the US I always thought I would learn a lot about the states. What I realized is that it taught me more about Denmark where I came from. By leaving the internet my suspicion is that he will learn a lot about it and probably get his priorities straight. If you can afford it, clever move.
jakejake 14y ago
Every few months I see a grand announcement on Facebook from someone or another about how they are closing their account. It always strikes me as a plea for their friends to beg them to stay. In this case obviously he is a writer so he probably has the idea that he will write a pulitzer-prize winning article about his year spent offline. I think if you're truly fed up with technology, just drop out. No need to make a big announcement about it.
- keithpeter 14y ago
  I suspect a year writing a book of some kind, perhaps not about the Internet absence. Given the nature of this gentleman's job, I suspect a chunky advance to live off and some kind of plan. I know this is a very small gesture in comparison, but I now spend time at a small cafe with no wifi and poor mobile phone signal for a couple of hours between commitments on Mondays. Mind mapping on paper and writing on a small netbook. Very productive of ideas.
  - jakejake 14y ago
    I'm totally in favor of unplugging for a bit, although I never seem to do it!
joshmattvander 14y ago
I think you should live blog the whole thing. Wait. Nevermind.
Exenith 14y ago
Funnily enough, I started doing this last week when I realized that I'm on the Internet instead of learning the things I want to be doing -- martial arts, dancing, woodwork, metalwork, mechanics, hunting, chemistry, making friends, learning to fly, adrenaline rushes, etc. The only difference is that I allow the use of Internet cafes. You do get physical and psychological withdrawals. I've been having fucking night terrors -- I've only had those once in my life, and that's when I gave up a drug addiction. There's an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and emptiness, but I knew this would happen since I don't have much of a social life. Everything is slow. At the moment it's not going well, because it's dawned on me that I can't afford the things I've been missing out on -- can't even afford martial arts classes. I've had no motivation to increase my income since I've just been spending time on the Internet. However, this is what I've been banking on. The deep emptiness will hopefully motivate me to make a real change, as opposed to the shallow and medicated emptiness I felt thanks to the Internet. Good luck.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
Ben_Burke 14y ago
gee...i wish i was wealthy enough to pull this off....seems pretty inconsiderate....if you hate the internet and it makes your life terrible then stop....for good....but I bet you come back because the internet has allowed you to get to this point of un-appreciation. why hate on it?
bearwithclaws 14y ago
Two years ago, I read the same thing (by a different author, of course): http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/life_without_the_web/my_probably_crazy_plan_to_give_up_the_internet.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/lif... It inspired me to make Hacker Monthly.
shalmanese 14y ago
The author is doing an AMA on reddit right now: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/szzm7/iama_technology_journalist_im_leaving_the/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/szzm7/iama_technology_...
vph 14y ago
This person loves the limelight so much that staying away from the Internet for a year will be a tremendous challenge for him.
andrewpi 14y ago
I honestly can't comprehend how he plans on doing his job without the internet. He's a tech-reporter for crying out loud! Relying on magazines & phone calls only to do that job in 2012 seems near impossible.
LVB 14y ago
Filling some of the time with a bit of dial-up Trade Wars wouldn't be all bad.
SkyMarshal 14y ago
“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.”
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
celerity 14y ago
Wouldn't a better and easier solution be to simply practice restraint and limit yourself to several websites like Google Maps, Wikipedia, Email (once a day), Calendar (in the morning)? Then you can include other sites one-by-one to see which are most distracting, and block them.
gurkendoktor 14y ago
I think not getting a data plan for your smartphone (or using a dumbphone) is a pretty good balance nowadays. I can't think of a single thing I've been missing after my iPhone contract ran out. I still have the internet when I focus on it and work, but I don't run around like a short-sighted, Facebook-addicted zombie on the subway anymore.
ranit8 14y ago
No obligatory xkcd? http://xkcd.com/597/ http://xkcd.com/597/

139 points by Braasch 14y ago

That's a fascinating experiment. I just tried 30 days without the internet (at home). But I still used it in cafes, whereas Paul is disconnecting completely. I think he's going to find many little points of friction that he wasn't expecting. So many non-internet exchanges now end with "sure, send me an email" or "Sure, just go to our website and..." The infrastructure to serve non-web users still exists, but it's fading. I personally decided to go back to the internet. I'm doing an online course with Udacity; cafe bandwidth didn't cut it. If I were just doing writing, I actually would go without a home internet connection. It's a much more productive system if your work doesn't require access. But my work now does, and there was too much friction. If I were doing technology writing, like Paul...well, I'd love to know how this turns out.

jiggy2011 14y ago
For many things (In the UK at least) there is still a non Internet infrastructure for interfacing with things like Government departments and banks. But many other times there simply is not, I remember a few years ago (maybe around 2007) job hunting and asking for an application form and being told that all applications had to be made online. Also for some of the systems I have developed we have ended up using email address as a uniquely identifying piece of information for each customer which basically means that it is a mandatory field whenever a record in the DB is created and I would guess many others have done so too.
there 14y ago
Maybe some day we'll have public phone-to-Internet relays where you call an operator and tell them to navigate a website and read it back to you, like the text-to-phone relays the deaf use.
- unimpressive 14y ago
  I like this idea. However, one must take into account the cost of having a human-operator read back a website to you. Maybe as synthesized speech improves you could have a viable service like this using computer programs as the operator. It'd be one way to cut back on your Internet addiction. You'll certainly reevaluate the worth of online discussions when you have to actually listen to them play out while you sit there.

crusso 14y ago

Maybe he should ditch electricity and plumbing too? I mean, if you're going to figure out how this one technology has infested your soul, why not go all the way? I'm sure there are some Amish* communities that would take you in and let you hammer some nails while you get back to your non-technological inner being. * That's always what they seem to do in movies to the point of being a cliche.

Cushman 14y ago
Is this a serious suggestion? It reads like you're mocking him, which is pretty uncalled for, but I can't be sure.
- crusso 14y ago
  I wouldn't call it serious or mocking, rather I'd call it whimsical speculation designed to generate conversation. I find your attempt to suppress my whimsical speculation designed to generate conversation to be pretty uncalled for.
  - Cushman 14y ago
    I didn't read it as whimsical; I was originally going to write something like "You're quitting smoking? Are you going to quit coffee, too?" It struck me as pretty harsh. I do think there's legitimate value to the idea-- I'd bet most people would be a lot happier without electricity or indoor plumbing than we'd imagine. But I think if somebody decided to try it for a year, a guy saying "No electricity, huh? Are you gonna stop cooking your food, or are you just doing like a halfway thing?" would sound like an asshole. Also, what gives with calling my good-faith request for clarification an "attempt to suppress" you? I could have just downvoted you and moved on if that's what I wanted.
    - polyfractal 14y ago
      > I do think there's legitimate value to the idea-- I'd bet most people would be a lot happier without electricity or indoor plumbing than we'd imagine. I think only someone who has grown up with both of those advances would be able to make this comment with a straight face. Ask anyone who has nearly frozen to death in the winter because they couldn't afford their electricity bill what they think of that statement. Or anyone who nearly died from cholera because of drinking from the nearest river due to no water utilities what they think of that statement. I'm not writing this to be hostile. It is simply a statement that the "good ol' days" were not really so good afterall.

ctdonath 14y ago

I spent 20 years without Internet. I'll give it up when you pry my unlimited-3G iPad from my cold dead fingers. (Until then, I'll be figuring out how to have it surgically implanted.)

tptacek 14y ago

It's been done before: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/life_without_the_web/my_probably_crazy_plan_to_give_up_the_internet.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/lif...

gsivil 14y ago
I will be running the marathon under three hours. Top comment: It has been done before
- danellis 14y ago
  You seem to be interpreting the comment as suggesting that there is no point in the endeavor. It can equally be read as simply offering another perspective or showing what might be expected.
  - tptacek 14y ago
    I was being a little dismissive.
    - jasonshen 14y ago
      Way to be honest! =)

MattGrommes 14y ago

Sheesh, what a pain in the ass this will be. Not paying bills online, not making plans over email, etc., etc. The idea of not letting "the Internet" into unknown corners of your life is fine but I do the same thing by _paying attention_. This reminds of the regular Information Overload articles that get written about how the writer has too much stuff to pay attention to. When I read those I always think "you're doing it wrong". Control your technology, don't let your technology control you.

icebraining 14y ago
Control your technology, don't let your technology control you. Or the lack of it.
pavel_lishin 14y ago
> Not paying bills online, not making plans over email, etc., etc. If he's married, I'd wager 90% of those things will still get done over the internet; but instead of clicking a mouse, he'll ask his wife.
- cocoflunchy 14y ago
  I think the part where he says: ["Internet use" includes web browsing from any device, asking anyone to web browse for me, surfing the internet over someone's shoulder] means that he won't ask someone to do it for him...
  - thebigshane 14y ago
    He also mentions it in the very first paragraph: I just won't use the internet in my personal or work life, and won't ask anyone to use it for me.
mst 14y ago
My bills pay themselves via variable direct debit, most of which I set up over the phone.

augmentech 14y ago

The following services are best done via internet and will be full of friction to substitute an alternative: 1. Remote desktop sharing and web conference calls 2. Remote learning / webinars 3. Bank transactions (web banking) for bill pay, instant wires and archived bank statements, etc. Yes, a phone call to the 1-800 could work, except for payments and immediately available bank statements. 4. Music video of the latest Rebecca Black hit exclusively available on Youtube only (lol right?) 4. 4.

adestefan 14y ago
3. Bank transactions (web banking) for bill pay, instant wires and archived bank statements, etc. We used to put these things called checks into little paper envelops. We then put an inexpensive stamp onto them an deposited them in mailboxes. About 3 days later our bills were magically paid. In all honesty does anyone actually have hard numbers on the number of people that actually use online bill pay? I'll willing to bet that a larger number of people still pay via a mailed check.
- dragonsky 14y ago
  Maybe in the US and for business transactions, but the remainder of the world seems to have taken to online and automated phone payments almost exclusively.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

dm8 14y ago

Couple of years back I hiked in Himalayas and there was no access to Internet for 15 days. Not just Internet but no cell phones, TVs, iPod etc. For first 3-4 days when we were still in rural towns of India, we had electricity but after that we had no access to electricity. I must say it was the best experience of my life. I don't think I missed anything at all. As far as author goes, 1 year is a really long time. I'd love to hear after 1 year.

kelnos 14y ago
I don't think 15 days is enough to get over the initial novelty and "honeymoon period" to be really sure it's so great. After all, you're here now, back on the internet, posting on HN. It is a good indicator that all of us could probably stand to gain from unplugging for a while every now and then.
InclinedPlane 14y ago
It's one thing to go on a vacation and cut yourself off. It's another thing to cut yourself off for the day to day grind.
- personlurking 14y ago
  Here's one guy's experience of life (5 months of travels through Africa) before cell phones and, in general, most modern technology. http://www.quora.com/Mobile-Phones/What-was-daily-life-like-before-almost-everyone-had-cell-phones http://www.quora.com/Mobile-Phones/What-was-daily-life-like-...
  - mattm 14y ago
    That's a great story. I went to Nairobi in 2004 and had the opportunity to stay with host families for three months. In 2004 there, slow Internet was available in Internet cafes for about $1/hr and some people had cell phones but mostly a family would have one and share it amongst them. Because the landline phones were so poor due to government monopoly, many people didn't even bother using them. It was common for friends to just suddenly show up at your home. It would have been the same way in the Western world before telephones. For me, it was pretty nice. Everything seemed much more social and there was much more spontaneity on a daily basis instead of everything requiring planning. Now that cell phones are more common there, I have no idea if people still just show up at friend's homes. Unfortunately, I would assume it would be something that will die away.

edwinnathaniel 14y ago

I recently spent 5 days without cable and internet connection (that's not quite true, I had internet connection of a total 4 hours) but I have activities so I'm not bored to death. It feels, relieving at that time. It feels that life can be simpler. Maybe I'll do that again soon....

mortenjorck 14y ago

Having followed Paul's writing for awhile, I feel like I get where he's coming from and what he hopes to do with this endeavor. I really respect that. But I still have to question the viability, and ultimately the value, of this honestly rather extreme abstentionism. If he were moving to a village in Thailand, things would be different – he'd be surrounded by people who don't need the internet, and the society he'd be living in wouldn't expect him to use it. But, as far as I can tell, he's staying in NYC. The penalty for disconnecting is going to be disproportionately greater there than it would be in a society that doesn't expect even its homeless to be able to get government forms from an internet-connected computer in a public library. He can try to live in New York circa 1992, but he's ultimately going to be expected to live in New York 2012. I think a more productive self-denial would be to limit one's internet usage to libraries and internet cafes. Cancel the FiOS and 4G, divorce yourself from Twitter and email, but leave the option open of making a trip down to the library to take care of the things in your daily life that actually require the internet.

tomjen3 14y ago
Oh absolutely. My parents moved to city that they had never been to at about that time. My mom had to call the directory to ask for realtor so they could find some place to live. It was back when people actually used the phonebook to look up phone-numbers. It is that long ago. Today almost none of the tech in available. Payphones still exist, but you have to know where they are -- and they are not exactly cheap. Heck he can't even buy stuff at a supermarket, since those computers are almost certainly wired to send the purchase information back to be mined for data. And that wasn't unheard of back then. Today? Do they even have a directory anymore?
cjoh 14y ago
Agreed. If he's looking to "disconnect" it'd be more interesting to see him also go rural for a year.
- zmmz 14y ago
  I disagree. I think we all know that it's possible to "go rural". Many have done it. What Paul is doing is far more interesting and valuable to him as a tech journalist. I see this as a research project, not as a rejection of the web. To quote: > Now I want to see the internet at a distance. By separating myself from the constant connectivity, I can see which aspects are truly valuable, which are distractions for me, and which parts are corrupting my very soul. What I worry is that I'm so "adept" at the internet that I've found ways to fill every crevice of my life with it, and I'm pretty sure the internet has invaded some places where it doesn't belong. He will still live in NYC, still write tech articles, but by disconnecting he will constantly have some distance from the material. I will be happy to read his observations on the field around him through his new perspective.

carguy1983 14y ago

Life before the internet was incredibly boring most of the time. You spent the majority of your free time figuring out ways to wring the most value from the 10% of time spent doing actual things with actual people. A lot of it was filled with TV and moving around needlessly (to get things, to send things, to be somewhere at a certain time to pick up the phone...). It really sucked.

narrator 14y ago
One thing about life before the Internet was that social connections were used for finding out information. Nowadays people just go on the Internet and find it. Knowing a lot about a lot of things doesn't really count for much. I used to program Macs in the 90s and you'd get these big old Inside Mac books and maybe a good Primer book and if you got stuck, there was no stack overflow. You just had to go ask somebody. People maintained friendships because they might need information from that person. Now that's become totally obsolete.
- aaronblohowiak 14y ago
  I just find the questions I get asked are more interesting.
  - noonespecial 14y ago
    I used to get asked things that were effectively trivia, now I get asked things that are more about discernment.
drostie 14y ago
I thought that this attitude was sufficiently funny that I decided to put it into a Philosoraptor image, which I think is reasonably appropriate: http://drostie.org/before_lolcats.jpg http://drostie.org/before_lolcats.jpg
- ars 14y ago
  You've been here long enough to know that this kind of stuff is not desired here.

Meiscooldude 14y ago

Hehe, I have that old Nokia he was looking at in the shop. Dumbphones rock!

nerdfiles 14y ago

For the past couple of months I've lived without iPhone (with Prompt and Textastic) or phone for that matter (except for the occasional Skype call). I've tried to restrict my development and general Web usage to ~2 hours a day. I recall bumping into a colleague at around 3-4a.m. We had a smoke and then he got called away to do tech support on some web app he had been contractually obligated to support. Given experiences like that, and my previous work schedule: In the meantime, I've played in the park; re-learned futball to where I can perform advanced, intensive dribbling; re-experienced my long distance running regimen with old friends; progressively mastered the track bike (in complex traffic scenarios, track standing, skid stops, heel stops, etc.); re-organized my thoughts in ordinary language philosophy, contemporary neuroscience, quantum mechanics, Wittgenstein and Spinoza; I've begun a semi-daily writing activity; longboarding; road tripping; skipping stones; befriending animals; etc. These are the activities which contrast with $ pip install -r reqs.txt or reading another API or vim or bash scripting. But what else have I noticed? Daily I sit underneath the Texas sun, and watch. I watch people use these devices. I see IE everywhere and hours upon hours of people fumbling with that. Or texting. Playing some app or Twitter. It's beautiful, as I sit under the sun, silent. It upsets me how so many able bodies opt for such narrowly prescribed lifestyle. This argument often turns into ad hominem or red herring involving luddites, Amish, throwbacks, vintagers, etc.. But this text-based lifestyle is a choice too, you know, regardless of how "technologically savvy" or "liberated" or "autonomous" or "anonymous" one is.

guywithabike 14y ago
What's your job / how do you pay your bills?
- nerdfiles 14y ago
  Freelance front-end development. Python mostly.
olalonde 14y ago
Lots of applause lights in there (http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/). I'm pretty sure things are not nearly as bad as you seem to believe.

macco 14y ago

Good luck!

Havoc 14y ago

I get the part about not using the internet. Easy enough. But not using the internet & still getting stuff done? That I'd like to see.

wavephorm 14y ago

This reminds me of that guy about 10 or 15 years ago, who made some amazing claim that that he was going to live in his house, sustaining himself entirely from work he did and things he bought from the internet for a year. And then basically everyone forgot about it. I don't even know how that ended. The truth is nobody really cares. Stay on the internet, don't use the internet... nobody cares.

ThomPete 14y ago

The first time I moved to the US I always thought I would learn a lot about the states. What I realized is that it taught me more about Denmark where I came from. By leaving the internet my suspicion is that he will learn a lot about it and probably get his priorities straight. If you can afford it, clever move.

jakejake 14y ago

Every few months I see a grand announcement on Facebook from someone or another about how they are closing their account. It always strikes me as a plea for their friends to beg them to stay. In this case obviously he is a writer so he probably has the idea that he will write a pulitzer-prize winning article about his year spent offline. I think if you're truly fed up with technology, just drop out. No need to make a big announcement about it.

keithpeter 14y ago
I suspect a year writing a book of some kind, perhaps not about the Internet absence. Given the nature of this gentleman's job, I suspect a chunky advance to live off and some kind of plan. I know this is a very small gesture in comparison, but I now spend time at a small cafe with no wifi and poor mobile phone signal for a couple of hours between commitments on Mondays. Mind mapping on paper and writing on a small netbook. Very productive of ideas.
- jakejake 14y ago
  I'm totally in favor of unplugging for a bit, although I never seem to do it!

joshmattvander 14y ago

I think you should live blog the whole thing. Wait. Nevermind.

Exenith 14y ago

Funnily enough, I started doing this last week when I realized that I'm on the Internet instead of learning the things I want to be doing -- martial arts, dancing, woodwork, metalwork, mechanics, hunting, chemistry, making friends, learning to fly, adrenaline rushes, etc. The only difference is that I allow the use of Internet cafes. You do get physical and psychological withdrawals. I've been having fucking night terrors -- I've only had those once in my life, and that's when I gave up a drug addiction. There's an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and emptiness, but I knew this would happen since I don't have much of a social life. Everything is slow. At the moment it's not going well, because it's dawned on me that I can't afford the things I've been missing out on -- can't even afford martial arts classes. I've had no motivation to increase my income since I've just been spending time on the Internet. However, this is what I've been banking on. The deep emptiness will hopefully motivate me to make a real change, as opposed to the shallow and medicated emptiness I felt thanks to the Internet. Good luck.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

Ben_Burke 14y ago

gee...i wish i was wealthy enough to pull this off....seems pretty inconsiderate....if you hate the internet and it makes your life terrible then stop....for good....but I bet you come back because the internet has allowed you to get to this point of un-appreciation. why hate on it?

bearwithclaws 14y ago

Two years ago, I read the same thing (by a different author, of course): http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/life_without_the_web/my_probably_crazy_plan_to_give_up_the_internet.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/lif... It inspired me to make Hacker Monthly.

shalmanese 14y ago

The author is doing an AMA on reddit right now: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/szzm7/iama_technology_journalist_im_leaving_the/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/szzm7/iama_technology_...

vph 14y ago

This person loves the limelight so much that staying away from the Internet for a year will be a tremendous challenge for him.

andrewpi 14y ago

I honestly can't comprehend how he plans on doing his job without the internet. He's a tech-reporter for crying out loud! Relying on magazines & phone calls only to do that job in 2012 seems near impossible.

LVB 14y ago

Filling some of the time with a bit of dial-up Trade Wars wouldn't be all bad.

SkyMarshal 14y ago

“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.”

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

celerity 14y ago

Wouldn't a better and easier solution be to simply practice restraint and limit yourself to several websites like Google Maps, Wikipedia, Email (once a day), Calendar (in the morning)? Then you can include other sites one-by-one to see which are most distracting, and block them.

gurkendoktor 14y ago

I think not getting a data plan for your smartphone (or using a dumbphone) is a pretty good balance nowadays. I can't think of a single thing I've been missing after my iPhone contract ran out. I still have the internet when I focus on it and work, but I don't run around like a short-sighted, Facebook-addicted zombie on the subway anymore.

ranit8 14y ago

No obligatory xkcd? http://xkcd.com/597/ http://xkcd.com/597/