
Ten days and nights unplugged - mittal
http://www.mittal.vc/2013/10/06/10-days-and-nights-unplugged/
======
icebraining
I, on the other hand, have never understood how can people live with all that
noise. The first thing I do when I get a new device is shut down all
notifications. And taking out my phone while in a face-to-face conversation
would fill me with guilt. I still have more phone, but it doesn't have mobile
Internet and I only get a couple of calls per week.

Guess it's just one more oddity of mine.

~~~
stinos
Not that much of an oddity: you're not alone. On the contrary, the parallel
life described by the OP, is the life that me, you and millions of others
actually live every single day. And from the description he gives of his
normal life, I for one am happy with my normal life that incorporates simple
things like sitting outside in a chair and listening/watching animals in my
garden rather then doing the same but being interrupted every minute with a
new status update.

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asgard1024
Come on, 10 days without electronics? That is an amazing feat nowadays?

(I personally could do it without a problem - well, if I hadn't go to my
programming job, of course - take a mathematics book, pen and notebook, and
learn something new.)

What about a year? How could we have lived just a couple of years ago?

~~~
k-mcgrady
Have you tried it? I had to go about 2 weeks without internet when I moved
apartment. The only access I had was the local café and I only used that to
send files for work (so I went in spent 20-30 minutes on email/dropbox and
then left). It's amazing how difficult it was and how much it changed how I
lived for those two weeks.

There were positives (I read more, went out more etc.) but they didn't last
too long. The time my roommate and I would have wasted on the internet
previously was now allocated to TV. Rather than only watch shows we liked we
channel surfed for hours. It was kind of like being thrown back in time to how
I wasted time when I was younger.

~~~
xradionut
I've had a good 6 months of minimal personal electronics a few years back.
Aside from work, I didn't connect at all. I had a new apartment in a complex
which was being rewired for FIOS at a snails pace, my cell phone coverage was
shitty and I didn't move in with a TV. Plus my PowerMac had a blown power
supply which I declined to replace.

I spent more time at the gym, hiking, meeting people in person, exploring and
reading books than ever. It refreshing, but compared to my coworkers, I felt
like an alien species.

------
weland
I have some interesting anecdotes to share about a somewhat opposite
situation. I, uh, I just got a Facebook account. I have actively refused it
for a long time, and even now I am very picky about it -- my friends list has
a bunch of people I don't even know, my location frequently changes and I
access it only through Tor because I hate Facebook's privacy policy (or lack
of thereof). That being said, I was the last in my group of friends to do it.
Most of them opened their FB account years ago. I opened it because one of my
friends left the country, but he doesn't use an IM program, nor checks his
e-mail too often, and this was pretty much the only way to stay in touch.

I noticed a bunch of weird things about FB-trained users:

* A few days ago, I threw a party and invited two good friends that I haven't seen in a while. Both of them were a bit pissed on me, because I'd moved to Ireland without so much as dropping by to tell them I'm leaving, but were happy to see me and had struggled to make it to the party, because they knew I'd probably be going back soon. Now, I've never even _been_ to Ireland, let alone move there, so I was understandably dumbfounded, until I realized that the last location I'd listed on Facebook was a city in Ireland. The thought that someone would take the location I list _on the Internet_ seriously didn't even cross my mind. Hell, when I started using the Internet, around a quarter of the other users claimed they were from Middle Earth, and I claimed I was from Coruscant!

* Facebook events. I nearly missed a friend's anniversary because he just opened a Facebook event, instead of inviting everyone over. You know, by telephone. Needless to say, I probably skipped over it in my inbox or whatever they call it.

* "Like" and "Epic". I consistently denied using the former without leaving a comment, because I think it's lazy, but the latter is, unfortunately, starting to enter my vocabulary. At first, whenever someone was saying that this or that had been epic, I was literally asking them what exactly they meant. I'm seriously alarmed by this, as our entire vocabulary is being invaded by "lazy" words that can mean pretty much anything you want them to mean. "Epic" is the new "nice". Is it sunny outside? Whoa, what a nice, warm day. Is it raining? Whoa, how nice and cozy. Is there a fucking blizzard outside? This is going to be such a nice Christmas day! Now, my jalapeno sauce was about as epic as the adventures of Gilgamesh, the legendary king of Uruk.

Needless to say, my integration in this new Interwebs-powered social network
has not been without glitches...

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "my friends list has a bunch of people I don't even know"

WHY? This is consistently one of the biggest complaints about Facebook. I can
understand people who've had Facebook since it's early days having this
problem but if you just opened your account why did you add people you don't
know?

~~~
weland
Because Facebook gets really confused about it. Their "list of people you may
know" is quite off, they can't recommend any bar or club in my hometown
_because I never even listed it as my location_. Even the "meet singles in
your areas" ads are off. This way, I can stay in touch with my friends and not
be a marketing tool for Facebook.

Edit: just to make sure I get my message across the way I want to: I do this
because I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the idea, but more importantly
because:

a) I _hate_ targeted advertising. If I make a purchase decision, I want to
make sure I make it based on actual information, not clever advertising.
Avoiding clever advertising is a good way for me not to bump into it.

b) I really think this is wrong. I am a programmer myself, and I think
platforms like Facebook are definitely _not_ the way technology should be
used. Of course, not all of my friends share the same principles, and I don't
want that to be an obstacle; I found this to be a reasonable middle ground.

~~~
beagle3
It'll likely throw off the marketers, at least for a while, but I hope you are
aware that if anyone at a 3 letter agency, or even anyone at facebook, cared
about you - that it will take them exactly 3 seconds to drop the noise.

~~~
dspillett
_> It'll likely throw off the marketers, at least for a while_

Nah, you just get adverts you care even less about than those which have a
chance of being some measurable fraction of relevant.

Most of the adverts I see seem to be based on what my contacts have "like"d,
or otherwise interacted with, more than what I have done (though this could be
in part due to me providing fb with a lot less info to work on than some of my
contacts do) so providing fake information about yourself will make little
difference there unless your contacts all do the same.

~~~
weland
Empirically, it seems to work so far. My likes are quite eclectic, too, but
that's by my design -- my homepage gets feeds related to Machete Kills and
Oscar Wilde because I actually like both. Most of the ads are obviously wrong
(hair conditioning products and club wear; I'm bald and hate clubs).

I honestly don't care about targeted advertising. Irrelevant advertising works
fine for me.

------
technotony
This is part of the reason that burning man is so meaningful for many people -
without phones we have to connect with those around us and be present in the
moment. When everyone is like that, it's amazing!

~~~
visakanv
Nathan Jurgenson wrote an interesting piece about how phones are a sort of
microaggression- using it is a subtle act of protest against present company.
It's a kind of shield, a buffer that says "I'm afraid to fully commit."

The beautiful thing about Burning Man (I'm guessing- I've never been there) is
that it's a self-selecting audience. And self-selecting audiences are the
easiest to work with. Think about a comedian facing a tough crowd vs. a
comedian facing a friendly, hometown group.

I'm pretty sure you'll find the same sort of cameraderie anywhere that's hard
to get to. A mountain summit. A backpacker's hostel. A track meet. Military
boot camp. The distance between the self and the other is diminished, and
everybody gets along beautifully- so there's no need for phones.

I saw this video on Tumblr of gymnasts at the Olympics- Russian, Chinese,
American- none of them speaking the same language- giving each other hugs and
thumbs-ups. You probably wouldn't see them on their phones much even if they
had them with them- there's too much to take in.

~~~
icebraining
_Nathan Jurgenson wrote an interesting piece about how phones are a sort of
microaggression- using it is a subtle act of protest against present company.
It 's a kind of shield, a buffer that says "I'm afraid to fully commit."_

What I don't get is how that's totally acceptable even to otherwise educated
people. From what I can remember, reading the paper or watching TV during a
conversation was considered rude and often censored, yet cellphones seem to be
exceptional. I find it puzzling.

~~~
lmm
If your manservant brings a telegram during a soiree your guests expect you to
pause to read it and respond. Someone casually reading their phone like a
newspaper would I think deserve censure, but responding to an incoming
notification feels acceptable.

~~~
technotony
I think if someone had a manservant bring him his phone following a
notification, I might let him look at it too...

------
aestra
Every week my significant other and I and some of our friends go to bar
trivia. Last week our friend brought a lady friend he had been dating for a
few weeks and she brought her roommate. These two were quite a bit younger
than us (I'm in my 30s), they were 21 or 22 at the oldest. The whole time they
were glued to their phones, except when we were answering questions because
you can't have your phones out while answering questions. They got all huffy
when they had to put them away, and didn't even want to help with the
questions because of it. Neither of them wanted to interact with the people
around them at all. It was really the most rude thing I ever saw in my life.
My friend and her actually broke up over it.

When people pull their phones out when talking to my or out with me, it really
really stresses me out. I don't know why I find it stressful, but I do.

~~~
andrew_gardener
You likely find it stressful since they are completely and totally ignoring
you and not even trying to be polite or nice about it. Its one thing to be
part of a conversation and not really contribute to it (but are at least
paying attention and trying to absorb the information) and another to be
"part" of a conversation and completely oblivious to said conversation.

This has happened to me a lot in recent years and I find it stressful as well.
Probably the biggest problem I have with it is I don't understand the purpose
of going out somewhere with people to not participate at all. Why not just
save everyone time/trouble and not go in the first place?

~~~
aestra
I find stress to be a strange response though. Annoyance would be a more
"expected" response. Stress is something I wouldn't expect because I associate
stress with more of a "fight or flight" situation.

It's something I find interesting.

I also don't understand the point of going out and not participating, or fully
participating. If I have someone in front of me, I find I owe them my full
attention, anything else is rude. I also am finding it highly strange that it
seems difficult for anyone just to sit quietly by themselves without anything
to do for 10 minutes, I think its a product of our "always plugged in"
lifestyle.

------
visakanv
I've had this experience too. I was a hardcore Facebook user (the village
smartarse), and finally got frustrated and deactivated my Facebook account.
Also went largely cold off social media. I even left the Whatsapp group my
circle of friends are in.

It felt like diving deep underwater after struggling with the crashing waves.
Serene, calm, bliss. I find that now when I return to the surface, I approach
it with a very different perspective.

------
bscofield
I found it amusing that going without internet access and a cell transported
him "to the early 1900s," as opposed to, say, the mid-1980s.

~~~
ronaldx
Mid-1990s at the very earliest, and arguably later: he still presumably had
easily accessible, fast, internet access with wikipedia and google (just, not
on his phone) and could still contact other people on their cellphones.

------
haon99
I started taking semi-regular walks with friends around town without our
phones. The take away has definitely been akin to 'pros' list here, but dodged
all the 'cons'.

Shameless plug - We actually set up a website to help facilitate these walks,
hoping to get others involved:
[http://www.OffTheGridOnTheGrid.com/](http://www.OffTheGridOnTheGrid.com/)

------
51Cards
Anyone else finding the text of the article really hard to read? On my screen
it looks like out-of-focus grey text and I can feel the eye strain. I had to
highlight it all to be able to read it easily. Just an FYI in case the OP
reads this.

Edit: I am noticing a difference reading it in Chrome vs. Firefox where I
typically browse. Definitely clearer in Chrome.

------
pertinhower
Another astounding way to visit this ancient past is to talk to one of the
billions of people who are over 30 and who perfectly remember that no one was
this plugged in even a few short years ago, and many still aren't. Might want
to take a compass while you explore these dusty roads.

------
Pxtl
See also:

[http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/commentary/alttex...](http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/commentary/alttext/2007/01/72546)

------
ca98am79
ha, by the title I thought this was going to be about a 10-day silent
vipassana meditation retreat - I just got back from one a few weeks ago. In
case you're interested you can read more at
[http://dhamma.org](http://dhamma.org)

------
JacksonGariety
Every few months I tell myself I'll turn off the internet.

I never do it.

~~~
mittal
Back when I used Windows I modified my hosts file to make facebook.com
redirect to 127.0.0.1.

That lasted for a few minutes.

~~~
rogem002
I changed my password to something difficult to memorise which was stored in
an online password vault. The result was it took an extra 20 seconds to login,
which proved to be a very effective way to stop using facebook.

~~~
waterlesscloud
I just deleted the bookmark for Facebook so I have to type it in. Well, type
"Fa" anyway. But just doing that instead of having a button to click cut down
my usage by 70-80%. I was clicking the button out of boredom a lot, I guess.

I rarely use Facebook on my phone, I don't like the interface at all. Mostly
I'll just use it to share a pic, and even then I'm going through Instagram to
do it.

