One Year Without Internet :: Not all frisbies & dandelions
This article by Paul Miller is an absolute must read. If you told me you were abandoning the internet for a year, (after I stopped laughing…) I would imagine your lifestyle changing dramatically.
My goal … would be to discover what the internet had done to me over the years.
Google has evolved from a noun to a verb. How many pieces of your day are done with an internet/ cellular connection? When’s the last time you used a paper map? How many pieces of your communication are done online vs. face-to-face? Yes, your life would change. But would you?
you don’t need to go on a yearlong internet fast to realize your sister has feelings.
On the news, in the paper, and in our conversations, we hear often of the ‘teenagers today’ having it so much harder than previous generations. I have always disagreed with this statement. The elements they deal with today may be more dangerous, but the pressures are all still the same. We are still horrible to each other, striving desperately to ‘fit in’. Nothing that we do to our peers today is different in perspective value from what we did to our peers in 1954.
There will always be something to distract you, if you indeed wish to be distracted. The internet is our current scapegoat, but what came before it? Nintendo. Atari. Magazines. Cigarettes. Poker. Porn. Pick your crutch.
When you returned from your virtual vacation, how different would your world be? Would you use the internet in the same ways as before? Will you use it at all? The answer to both questions, is likely a regretful & resounding ‘yes’. Paul’s article brings to light the resonating realization that our lives are forever changed.
When we use a phone or a computer we’re still flesh-and-blood humans, occupying time and space. When we’re frolicking through a field somewhere, our gadgets stowed far away, the internet still impacts our thinking: “Will I tweet about this when I get back?”
www. is part of our permanent vernacular. Use it wisely. There’s a real live human on the other end of your size 12 Times New Roman.
Wakened Willow 