Online
I recently tried to live entirely offline for a week. I only lasted five days. I missed email and Google the most.
I found myself doing all sorts of things I rarely or never considered doing before. For example, I wrote a couple of blog entries by hand. I also sent someone a handwritten thank you card. I called people more often and even drove someplace specifically to confirm our bookclub plans.
You might think that I saved all sorts of time by ”living life” rather than wasting time online. In fact the opposite is true. Hunting down facts and writing things by hand takes a lot of time. Plus I had to buy some stamps which required a trip to the post office, waiting in line and an extremely odd conversation with a post office worker who was annoyed that I didn’t want Archie, Veronica and Bettie stamps.
By day five I was feeling relatively isolated, pressed for time, extremely uninformed and quite frustrated by my inability to instantly access information (what was the name of that restaurant, how do I get there, does so and so have a new book coming out soon, how do I spell oh so many words, what time is the movie showing). You know, the minutia that we normally don’t even think about any more.
Well for five days I thought about it. And now I appreciate it more – much more.
