No computer? No problem. I'll just....wait.....oh no..

I've really been trying to cut back from everything that keeps me "connected." I'll leave my phone in my room and go places, I won't randomly browse the internet save for a little bit at night, I went from wasting way too much time on Facebook to checking it once a week. It's actually rather nice to not be constantly at everyone else's beck and call.

 

I hardly ever look at the computer over the weekend, I only fuck around on the internet on work time. In fact I'm currently being paid to write this.

I also turn off my phone for several hours at a time over the weekend. Fuck Technology. (Apart from my Projector and beer dispensing fridge, they are family)

 

I pretty much went without home internet access for over a year. My mom cut out the internet after I left for the Air Force, and when my sister went on to college. I got home about 2 years ago and had to go right back to living with mom, and after being unemployed for so long she simply couldn't afford it. I had to make frequent trips to the library, and wherever I could get WiFi access. It was frustrating beyond belief, especially when trying to get college homework done. Finally, I had enough and bought the cheapest internet package we could afford...pitching in to pay the bill.

As of now, I'm constantly connected...usually on my laptop, checking whats new here on TiB, email, sports, youtube, movie times, driving directions,Facebook..etc. It's also mandatory to communicate with my AF unit by giving them your personal email and also having to have a government email. Now that I just bought the Droid, it's good to be conveniently having the interwebs right at my side, although I could really care less about half the mindless applications there is out there.

So if I could go for over a year without my own internet access, I could more than likely stretch it further. It's nice to be disconnected from everything for a while but without some of my daily go to's I would surely deteroriate and probably flip the fuck out.

 

Every year for memorial day weekend, the family and I drive to my aunt's house in rural Pennsylvania. For that one week every year, no one uses the internet. The only computer in the house runs on Windows 99 and has a dial-up connection, there is very limited phone service, and my aunt doesn't let anyone stay inside during the day.

While for most people this sounds horrible, it's actually a relief to be away from all that. We spend most of our time there building huge fires, reading, going to the vineyard a mile up the street from the house, and eating food that my aunt grows in her garden. Also, we spend most nights smoking weed that the neighbor grows (he's a dairy farmer and cow manure makes awesome fertilizer) or getting drunk on homemade brandy.


Alt-Focus: I have a laptop, and that's it. No extra computers, no smart phones, nothing else.

 

Focus: What's the longest that you've ever gone without the internet? Was it easy? Did you have withdrawal?

The longest was probably about a month, while I was visiting some friends in Texas. Yeah, I had sporadic access to the Internet, but it was never long enough in my mind. Of course, it helped that I was with good friends day and night, so I said "fuck it". It also helped that smart phones weren't invented yet. The Razr was hot shit back then.

As for completely 0 access to the Internet? 3 days. I even had a Blackberry at the time and was a hopeless Internet junkie. I had went to Kelley's Island, an island on Lake Erie to to party with some friends up there. The first day, the data stream was so intermittent my phone died in 2 hours trying to find a decent connection. I. Went. Bonkers. I think I spent more time trying to charge my phone and read worthless Internet posts than I did hand out with my friends for the first part of the day. Afterwards, I realized that I was with some of my favorite people, surrounded by liberal alcohol laws and hot girls. It was heaven afterwards, realizing I didn't have to answer to a single person except those in front of me.

Alt. Focus: How often are you connected to the internet? Do you have an old Dell laptop that rarely works? Or are you connected via your two desktops, laptop, and smart phone, always checking facebook, twitter, and live scores of the games?

With my Droid? Always. Working on campus as a Research Assistant basically means I have my laptop near me at all times. Yes, I am one of those weirdos who will always sneak a peek at his phone when things are at a lull.

Alt. Alt. Focus: In all honesty, do you think you could live without it for a while? How long?

Yes, after the initial shock, it wouldn't be so bad. Until I had to use Wikipedia or spoonfeed myself an answer with the power of Google. So, I'd give myself a month.

 

I'm traveling about in Italy right now and free internet access is awfully hard to come by. I'm in my third hotel since last Wednesday and it is the first time I've had access to wi-fi for my laptop, which I brought with me. I've come to learn I'm horrifically addicted. Really I only have a couple of things I do online. E-mail, google reader, this site, and facebook. The latter two are no biggie, and e-mail is more of a mental concern over missing something important than anything else. It's that damn google reader that kills me. When I finally got on earlier tonight, my reader stood at 761 unread items. I really have to cut down on my feeds. E-mail I banged out in maybe 15 mins. Google reader, o the other hand, took a solid 3 hours to work through, and that was with many posts skimmed. I'm only here tonight so I'm sacrificing some sleep to get through everything now. I'm here for another 7 days so who knows when I'll have access again. All I know is I will at least sleep easy tonight. Tomorrow afternoon, the worrying begins yet again until I'm reunited with my precious precious internet. God help us all.

 

As it usually happens, this is excellent timing for this thread. I'm working at a camp called "Jim River camp" a couple of hundred miles north of Fairbanks. There is Internet service, but it's so sporadic that it's more of a pain in the ass than anything else. The first couple of days were hard to deal with not knowing about the important stuff. I missed Lindsey going to jail and most of the Mel Gibson shit...
I miss this website and a handful of others, but I find myself being about 1000% more productive. The Internet is aa awesome time waster. That's about it.

 

I work in the telecom industry, so, I know first hand how people freak out when they're not connected to the interwebs. It's actually really ridiculous at times. I've shown up to peoples houses where they've been without for only a couple hours and they look like they're going through withdrawals. I had one lady throw a potted plant at me because I told her it would be a couple of hours before everything started up and worked optimally.

As for me? Work supplies me a laptop and an aircard. I get internet anywhere that has cell service and right now, I'm rocking the new 4G stuff, so, it's blazing fast. When I get home though, I hardly use the computer at all. When I go on vacation, I usually one of the only people who doesn't need to post on Facebook or surf <a class="postlink" href="http://www.crapwebsite.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">www.crapwebsite.com</a>. I think I could go at least two or three weeks without needing to use it because by then, I would have a tonne of emails that I would have to sort through.

 

My smartphone provides me 'net access 24/7, but I never browse the web on it. Phone, text, email and calendar and the occasional picture-taking, that's it. I usually only access the web from my laptop at home, and occasionally when on campus and I never bring it on vacation--kinda defeats the purpose. When my wife and I went to London a few years ago (before we had smartphones/Crackberries), it was so refreshing not being tethered to our cellphones.

I could go a few weeks without internet access and it wouldn't be a problem, provided my newspaper subscriptions weren't interrupted. I need my crossword puzzle.

 

All of my work is computer-based, so I'm stuck on computers for 50 hours or more a week. At home, I also nerd it up and have 3 computers that I predominantly use, as well as random other ones littered around the house. I have my desktop, netbook and home theatre computer. I find that I have to introduce girls to this concept gradually as to not scare them off too quick by coming off as Ultra Dork, king of the geeks.

The longest I've been away from the Internet in the last 5 years? Probably 5 days when visiting friends who don't have the Internet. Yes, that thought is outlandish to me too. I still took the netbook though, and used it like a big iPod.