This past weekend, Amanda from Something To Ponder About and I decided to go without the internet for 48 hours. Amanda has already posted her experience so it would be interesting to also read her thoughts on our offline weekend as well. With the internet so engrained in our daily lives, would we find this easy enough? Are we more addicted than we first thought? What will our days look like? No apps, emails and browsing except phone calls for emergencies.
I was excited to do the experiment and also had some doubt about myself. Would I have the internet itch and be looking at phone resisting the urge to touch it like a 3 year old looking at a forbidden chocolate bar?
Day 1
My first thought when I woke up was “how freeing”. I didn’t expect to think this or feel a sense of relief immediately. The only explanation I can think of is that maybe I was already so bothered about being contactable at any moment of any day or this added thing that I needed to check. Call me an introvert but there seemed to be something more empowering about deciding when you can be contacted.
By now, I would’ve already caught up on all the social media happenings since I was last awake. Realistically, this is not needed. The world continues on with or without me and I don’t need to know about what has transpired in the areas that I’m interested in in the last 8 hours.
Being abroad means that I have more things to do and entertain myself with. My day consisted of a farmer’s market, bike riding, making lunch and even trying to make a summer drink.
I didn’t feel the need to check my phone but did pull it out to take pictures. I did think about using my digital camera instead but to save space in my bag, went with my phone.
By the afternoon, I realised that I was thinking about how I would have already sent a few pictures to friends/family and some running thoughts that I’ve had. I can always send them later and didn’t need to do things instantly. Have I been treating my relationship with others as a more surface level ‘they are always just a message away’ instead of really treasuring the relationship? Do I do enough and say enough to them when I’m with them to express my gratitude? Maybe this needs further exploring.
There were times during the day where I had a thought and wanted to look up something on google but couldn’t. This is what I missed the most. Being able to search information instantly.
Day 2
The next morning was similar to the day previously. It didn’t bother me at all that I couldn’t check my phone and went about my daily routine in peace. Instead of being preoccupied with what others were doing and had to say, I was more worried about my day and what I would be doing as this 31 degree C European summer day lay ahead of me.
My morning was spent picking blueberries on a my friend’s plot of land and in the late afternoon, we went to have a wander around town where a festival was taking place. I read on my kindle while waiting for the peak of the heat to pass. I felt settled and calm.
My disconnect to the internet was broken at midday when I bumped into my friend’s family member whilst I was walking back alone. We needed Google Translate to communicate so I had to connect to purely use this app. Where would we be without the internet? Not talking.
By night, I was still not really missing the phone and even had to remind myself that I would be able to turn on wifi the next morning.
Final Thoughts
I was definitely less distracted through the weekend and more focused on the activity at hand without having my ear listening out for a ping or thinking that I was bored. I felt that I could’ve done another day of being offline and am now thinking how I can limit my ‘connectiveness’.
One action that I did straight away was turn off some app notifications that I could’ve done a long time ago but did not.
I’ve come to realise that we are never really offline at all. We’re still contactable all day at work and then all night as well within our personal lives. Maybe by allocating only certain times of the day to be connected to the internet/apps, I can try and regain more quiet time in my life without the pings going off around the clock.
Lingo in Transit 
Fascinating account Sophie.
Some things that we definitely had in common during the detox experiment. We both found a sense of freedom, or at least a lack of pressure, however subtle, of having to read updates and notifications from various apps and social media, friends, family and colleagues. The commenters on my blog have also indicated that notifications are something that has bothered them and something so easy for us to turn off. I will definitely do that from now on, and have already implemented this. I had previously turned off Facebook and the like but there were others that regularly shouted at me for attention. If not on the phone, but on my wrist. I have a Google watch given to me for free when I got my new phone. How kind!!! I am now very ambivalent about it. Another firm of enslavement. I will ensure that non-essential notices are turned off on that as well.
Our little experiment was definitely a success and an excellent lesson in how to manage our internet use more wisely.
It sounds like you also felt more productive, yet relaxed. Its that time that may have been taken up reading updates on your phone that we can reclaim.
I noted that you commented about the immediacy of taking a photo and feeling the need to send it to friends, then reading their feedback in comments.
Just because we can, we don’t have to do this, immediately. We can do it at our leisure later and that just might be a healthier way to do it. Planning and structuring our internet use for certain times of the day or week?
I couldn’t imagine anything worse than having a smartwatch pinging all day at you! It’s actually something that bugs me when I’m with friends and their wrist lights up throughout our meal together breaking their attention. I’m still not sure how to best schedule my offline time as I don’t want to ‘train’ myself to look forward to the online time. Whole days off would be better or even logging out of apps.
You are right the notifications are annoying and one of the key distractions. Of course, the designers love that they can reengage you with their app when you have strayed back to reality. Since our experiment, I will be using my google watch only when it is absolutely necessary. Thanks for joining me on this adventure Sophie.
That’s what they’ve done (quite well) haven’t they? Trying to keep us on and engaged for as long as possible. It was a pleasure!
Oh yes. I feel at worst like a performing seal or trained 🐒 monkey playing internet games. There is only one I play and not often. I never pay money for it, kerping it merely as an exercise for my brain. It still has the downside of distraction and time wasting even so.
Oh I cannot get started on the games- once you start, you can’t stop.. It’s been years since I’ve had any of my phone.
Good onya. Wise!
Given I haven’t not had Internet since my preteen years, it’s almost unfathomable not to use the Internet in this day and age. It’s bad, but it’s great that you managed to disconnect from online and live in the moment! Perhaps I ought to try this experiment out myself!
Same! So I thought it would be nice to see what it’s like not connected. Let me know if you do try it out! It would be interesting to read your thoughts and how it went.
What an interesting experiment, I definitely need to try and do this for a weekend 🙂
Let me know if you do try it out and how it went!
good that it went well, and I see your point, I think we’d all benefit from limiting our connectiveness
Let me know if you ever try it some time.
What an interesting experiment! I don’t think it would bother me too much, except maybe the “keeping in touch” with friends and family part. I actually did this once, where me and my boyfriend booked a few nights in a cabin and decided that we would not use our phones, except for music and emergencies/receiving phone calls. It was very freeing!
A few nights away in a cabin sounds great to completely disconnect and relax.
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