
I'm leaving the Internet for a year - Braasch
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/30/2988798/paul-miller-year-without-internet
======
mortenjorck
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.

~~~
nekojima
"If he were moving to a village in Thailand"

Having spent a few months in a village in Northern Thailand, I was quite happy
on the speed our internet connection was usually providing us. Generally used
for checking email, skype, news and that passive income sources were still
working.

Going rural in more remote places, where the area is cut off by rain or snow
for some months of the year is far more challenging and interesting, at least
for me. It shouldn't be, its the lives of the folks who live there everyday,
we're just rather more lucky, most of the time.

When I lost house connected internet for a week, having to use libraries and
cafes in Canada was far more challenging, in terms of scheduling time to go
and use, than it was using the internet in a rural Thai village.

Good luck paying bills and checking your bank account (ATMs are an
alternative) & investments when you can't use the internet & they now issue
e-bill/e-statement, unless you pay extra for paper.

~~~
maguay
Actually, I've gotten 3G coverage in the remotest parts of Thailand, places
that only got electricity this year. I had more trouble staying connected in
small towns and such in the US!

~~~
Mz
I have not been to Thailand but can vouch for the problems of small town
America. I crossed the country this year, on foot and accepting rides. In
parts of rural Texas, my Verizon service either could not be connected at all
or would announce to me that I was in Mexico and "additional charges" would
apply for getting online. Oy.

------
MattGrommes
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.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> 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
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
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.

------
ctdonath
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.)

------
crusso
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.

~~~
graeme
The internet is pretty distinct. It changes how we think and perceive the
world.

Electricity is very impactful. But most things that it provides had analogues,
at least for the middle to upper classes. Servants fulfilled the role that
appliances now play. Horses provided fast enough transport, because the scale
of cities were smaller, etc.

All analogies will break down somewhere, but most modern electrical
conveniences have fairly close analogues in the past. But nothing seems like
the internet.

~~~
crusso
Imagine a culture that was pre-electricity. Bring someone from that culture to
1990. Show them cell phones, televisions, space travel, etc. Imagine the
cultural shock... the "advanced technology == magic" effect.

Now imagine showing someone from 1990 what things are like in 2012 with the
internet we have today. While they would think it's "neat" and even "amazing",
the magic effect would not be there.

The internet is cool, no doubt, but it's not the leap that electricity has
been.

~~~
cpeterso
> _Now imagine showing someone from 1990 what things are like in 2012 with the
> internet we have today. While they would think it's "neat" and even
> "amazing", the magic effect would not be there._

I wonder what the biggest "future shock" for (let's say) a 1995 web user
visiting the 2012 web? Video and bandwidth seem like the biggest differences,
but as you point out, neither are "magic" from a 1995 context.

~~~
DanBC
Video and bandwidth are impressive - 1995 was still painfully slow for many
people. People maybe had 56 kbit/s, but perhaps that dropped back to 33.3
kbit/s because of noisy lines. (v90 was approved late 1998). I was stuck on
14.4 kbps for ages. Oh god. ("Sloppy" is apparently a modem speed simulator.
(<http://www.dallaway.com/sloppy/>) )

But I think the magic would be video and bandwidth on a handheld device?

~~~
graeme
I've noticed that the web has gotten more useful. Google has an answer for
more and more things. Wikipedia covers more topics. The qualitative difference
is real, but hard to measure, because we can't search the web as it was in
2004, using the google of 2004.

I know I only went halfway back. If you go to 1995, there's a whole class of
services that didn't exist.

~~~
cpeterso
Yeah, Wikipedia would be a pretty big "future shock" (though more social than
technological).

And another social surprise would be Facebook because of the number of non-
techies using the Internet.

------
dm8
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.

~~~
RandallBrown
but how did you plan the vacation? I imagine you used the Internet pretty
extensively.

You didn't give up the Internet, you just went somewhere that didn't have it.
Your time was spent doing something else, and you (probably) had plans on how
to get around already.

If you gave up the Internet before you planned your trip, could you have gone?

~~~
cpeterso
Or if he used the Internet to schedule a one-way trip there, how easily could
he get home without using the Internet?

~~~
dm8
In fact I did exactly that. I scheduled one way trip using Internet. But I
came back home without any help from web. Asking indigenous people solved that
problem. And I also had those good ol' printed maps (instead of Google Maps)
of that area.

I highly recommend this type of adventure. Its a lifetime experience.

------
graeme
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.

~~~
there
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
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.

------
jakejake
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
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
I'm totally in favor of unplugging for a bit, although I never seem to do it!

------
Exenith
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.

------
tptacek
It's been done before:

[http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/lif...](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/life_without_the_web/my_probably_crazy_plan_to_give_up_the_internet.html)

~~~
gsivil
I will be running the marathon under three hours. Top comment: It has been
done before

~~~
danellis
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
I was being a little dismissive.

~~~
jasonshen
Way to be honest! =)

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

------
shalmanese
The author is doing an AMA on reddit right now:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/szzm7/iama_technology_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/szzm7/iama_technology_journalist_im_leaving_the/)

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

------
gurkendoktor
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.

------
bearwithclaws
Two years ago, I read the same thing (by a different author, of course):
[http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/lif...](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/offline/features/2010/life_without_the_web/my_probably_crazy_plan_to_give_up_the_internet.html)

It inspired me to make Hacker Monthly.

------
celerity
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.

------
ThomPete
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.

------
edwinnathaniel
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....

------
SkyMarshal
_“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.”_

------
andrewpi
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.

------
Havoc
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.

------
augmentech
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
_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
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.

------
Ben_Burke
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?

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

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

------
nerdfiles
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.

~~~
olalonde
Lots of applause lights in there
(<http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/>). I'm pretty sure things are
not nearly as bad as you seem to believe.

~~~
nerdfiles
It's largely anecdotal, personal writing. So your description of my style may
be technically accurate, but I feel your point suffers as a Mary-the-Color-
Scientist observation.

Take Paul Grice's Maxims for conversational exchange: Many maxims are at play,
and we shouldn't expect for anyone to be "in control" of their execution of a
maxim (maxim of relevance, truth, etc.). And an important point is that Grice
notes a maxim of relevance: relevant _information_.

Do I aim to supply anyone with _information_ with my post? Am I giving you
information? From my post, does it seem like I, the author, would see
_information_ as imperative to my point? Yes, naturally programmers expect an
optimally informative state such that transaction might occur, but...

Please, just read the sentences. I'm not a politician trying to convince you.
I am a human being with an approximate grasp of Academic English. I mean,
you're re-labeling my style with "UNINFORMATIVE."

How do you expect me to take that?

And "as bad as you seem to believe." Please point to anywhere in what I have
written that suggests I have described an overarching state of affairs to
which we should all direct our attention.

My point is nothing more than "it is a lifestyle choice amongst many". Of
course as someone who works out daily, as my anecdotal bits clear emphasize, I
am at once suggesting my own bias. But "things"... I'm nowhere in that post
talking about _things as they are_ or "the grand scheme."

You've applied that concept, not me. I'm mainly interested in this idea that
_Everything before the Internet is boring_. I am thinking in terms that we
have all well acknowledged: hours spent in front of a screen. The 5:01
developer intuits this. When I consider my hours not spent in front of a
screen, I have sport, books, travel, etc. Others have this as well. Sometimes
family or quite simply that too-sunny-fucking-idyllic-sunday feeling that
tells you: What I am discussing here, with this poet, must be more interesting
than work. So my point is actually a request for us to halt the discussion.
Before we talk about values (good, bad, etc.), let's first acknowledge that it
is a lifestyle. We should understand the values of the lifestyle (notably the
one the original author seems to reject).

And as a follow-up: What motivates this linguistic policing?

------
carguy1983
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
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
I just find the questions I get asked are more interesting.

~~~
noonespecial
I used to get asked things that were effectively trivia, now I get asked
things that are more about discernment.

------
wavephorm
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.

------
macco
Good luck!

