Off the Grid

[commonpeople1]

upload, a photo by olliefern on Flickr.

For 9 days, between Saturday 7th and Sunday 15th, I didn't check my emails, Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, Tumblr or the other many social networks I use regularly. I also didn't mean to use the internet but I had to break this a few times to look up info: did the Lowry Exhibition at Tate Britain come with an audio tour? Where exactly did the country walk from Hassocks to Lewes start? Were we on the right path in Richmond Park? How much money did I have left in my account? Where exactly was that store in Brighton that sold 2nd hand postcards?

Sounds banal to say it but when you're not busy scrolling through your mobile phone you start to notice life around you. Like the amount of homeless and drunks in the Eastend. The amount of people walking while texting. The amount of people driving while texting.

I turned off roamer on my mobile phone so I wouldn't get push notifications (temptations.) I'd catch myself during the first weekend wanting to check something, or thinking up a tweet/LJ post/Facebook update. I started sleeping for longer periods, with less interruptions. I wrote more in my journal. I read more. Ideas for short stories and novels flooded in. My decision to never do NaNoWriMo again wavered.

Bliss: no idea what was going on with my family nor with my work. Days stretched away - a week felt like two weeks. I began to dread having to check my emails again - in fact, by this last Sunday I had terrible insomnia/anxiety. Woke up exhausted and compulsively went through all my notifications, updates and emails (mostly junk.)

A lot of my physical problems can be traced back to the internet: insomnia, r.s.i, bad posture. I personally don't think we as human beings were meant to be digitally connected 24/7. A few hours a day - maybe OK. More than that? Not good. Social networks are the processed cheese of the 21st century. And Zadie Smith was right about the internet being terrible for writers. Some writers.

The internet is my alcohol and it doesn't help that I work in a distillery. But I need to keep taking these breaks, so I'm going to try Friday night to Monday morning from now on. Save the weekends for non-digital stuff. Follow Henry Miller's suggestion that you should always finish what you started.

Yesterday, I joined LinkedIn.

Comments

[verybadhorse.livejournal.com]

i feel similarly when i unplug for a while. i did it for a week on the farm, early on, and i read like twelve books and took hundreds of photographs. i also spent more time with friends, and much more time outdoors, exploring and with the animals. i need to do it again, too, but probably not while i'm trying to get readjusted to being in school. :)

anyway, hi. i miss you.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Heya....miss you too!

I was actually thinking of you after I wrote this post and was commuting - just wondering how you were doing and trying to remind myself to check your lj later!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

And I remember that time you were on the farm... there were so many idylic things about that period in your life (or at least they seemed that way to me.)

[rockingthemike.livejournal.com]

The internet is my alcohol and it doesn't help that I work in a distillery...

Yesterday, I joined LinkedIn.

haha! that sounds about right. ;)

i've been trying to switch off early evenings on sundays. it's not much, but it's something.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Baby steps...

[rockingthemike.livejournal.com]

exactly! i may eventually make a it a full day or something, but for now a few hours a couple times a week is good for me.

[millionreasons.livejournal.com]

Have you read this? (in the paper copy, obviously) http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n16/rebecca-solnit/diary

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing that... I can relate to every single word.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

Such a great idea. Good luck with the weekend plan. Our network's been down at work the last few days and I've felt so much more productive without email and other distractions.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Cheers! And how did your bday go? Who got hit in the head in the library with the candelabra?

[arafel1.livejournal.com]

I really believe we are all too connected and too attached to technology. I had the same thought this morning while in the metro. Almost everybody around me had a phone in his or her hands, or an ipod, or some e-reader.
Sigh.
It always makes me think about the Butlerian Jihad.

Welcome back.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of the term - sounds intriguing. I read Dune in high school and loved it then (also the film). But never got around to reading the other books in the series.

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

I sometimes go weekends without the internet and most holidays, although I will probably take my laptop to Devon with me. It probably helps that I don't have a smartphone, so I have to physically be in front of a computer to log on.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The smartphone has really plunged me into all out digital focus. Interrupting TV viewing, sleep, music listening... It has many positives too, especially to do with covering events for my work, and for long walks to the tube, but in general... I don't know. I can sympathise now with those teens who feel like their arm has been removed if they can't use their smartphones!

[olamina.livejournal.com]

This is good. I used to do internet fasts when I was in Slovenia. Having a kid encourages me to not be on internet at home as much. The smartphone is sorta insidious but these days H usually knocks it out of my hand when he lunges for it anyway. So we spend a lot of time listening to public radio, which is actually such a relief.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I did loads of radio listening too. I <3 6 Music.