Going Offline – why I ditched the internet at home

I am not to be trusted. Specifically, I am not to be trusted with the internet.  Maybe I should qualify that still further – I don’t mean I’m not to be trusted because I spend my time on dodgy websites – I mean I find it difficult, if not impossible, to ration the time that I spend online at home. I take no pride in this lack of willpower although I do take some comfort in the fact that I am by no means alone.

Ten years ago the internet was easy to ignore most of the time. Interminably slow connections, hopelessly inaccurate search engines and limited applications - I used it occasionally but as nothing more than a powerful encyclopaedia. Then along came Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and so on and so on. It was (and is) brilliant. Research from the armchair rather than trudging to the library, connecting with long lost friends and making new online ones, and having the opportunity to reach people through writing on blogs like this one. Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s all brilliant. But – for me- it can easily take over. I stopped reading books, listening to music, watching favourite films or listening to the radio. I didn’t stop going out – but when I was at home the internet was how I would spend much of my leisure hours.

So when I moved home six months ago I made a decision not to have the internet at my new place. I also decided not to have a TV or a landline. TV is mostly rubbish anyway and the only calls I received on my landline were from debt collectors, companies offering to reclaim my mis-sold PPI or people trying to sell me stuff. I decided these were all calls that I could do without. I also ditched the smartphone and reverted to my very old Nokia  - calls and texts is all it can manage. I have not missed the telly or the phoneline at all. There is a callbox at the end of my street for landline calls – otherwise there’s the mobile.  Good TV programmes can be watched on Iplayer or 4oD or similar – although there are very few TV programmes I can’t manage without.

The internet has been the thing I have missed. Going without it has been harder than I realised – it is difficult to believe that something that has been part of society for such a short time can become so indispensible so quickly.  I miss not being able to look things up when I want when I am researching for my books or blog; I miss being able to constantly check my emails for the latest rejection; I miss consoling myself when I am lonely by talking to my friends online; I miss pretending I am more important than I am by tweeting famous people with my opinions.  I can still do these things – just not whenever I want to.

The Internet
Image curiouslee via creative commons 

My local library has free internet all day every day (except Wednesday and Sunday when they are closed). On ‘free Fridays’ they even provide tea and coffee.  Most of the cafes in Ilfracombe now offer free Wifi as does my local pub. My mate Mick has internet at his house, less than ten minutes walk away. So now when I get online it is more structured and planned, rather than something that fills up hours of time for no discernable benefit. I still use Twitter and Facebook – but limit the time. And I check my emails once every couple of days.

I have started reading again – books, proper, tactile, physical pages with regular lines of black ink laid out in regular, reassuring paragraphs. I read before I go to sleep and find reading, rather than staring at a screen, helps me sleep more soundly. I listen to the radio and remember that Radio 4 still has the programmes we used to get on TV – in depth, cerebral, entertaining and memorable programmes that stay with me after the programme has ended. I play music that relaxes me – and listen to it properly rather than as a background noise. I stare out of the window – I overlook the harbour and there is always something going on. I feel more relaxed.

It’s still early days  and I still miss being online at home but - like any addiction - once kicked, going without gets easier over time. I feel I am regaining control over it rather than it controlling me and I’m not about to capitulate just yet. Ask me again in six months time.