I’m Not Addicted to the Internet
By: S. J. Gordon
Tags: Life, Culture, Self, Social Media, Life Lessons

My high speed, super-duper wireless modem thingy died of dignified old age and I spent all last week without internet connection.

You’d think I was the hapless protagonist in a Saturday matinee time travel movie, and I was ruthlessly flung back into the stone age.

Looking back, I believe it has been nearly eight years since I last experienced any loss of connectivity. We had just moved into our current home and, for a variety of reasons I don’t clearly recall anymore, our internet provider was unable to hook up our home for about a week.

I remember it as being a nuisance, but not too big a deal. I dropped in at a local coffee shop a couple of times, used the internet there, and all was well.

This time was definitely different.

It’s like it’s some kind of conspiracy.

This time, there seemed to be a perfect storm of circumstances to make my lack of internet a real hassle.

First, I’m not as independently mobile right now as I would normally be. Having broken my ankle in a nasty car accident, I’m still working on driving myself around. In consequence, dropping in on a local coffee shop to use the internet wasn’t an option.

More importantly, however, my internet usage has changed quite a lot in the last eight years.

Gone are the days when I would check emails, drop in on Facebook for a moment, and then toddle back to my analog world.

Now, I do the largest part of my shopping online, even the weekly grocery shopping. I plan all our travel online. Much of my entertainment is streamed or downloaded. I spend quite a lot of time researching all sorts of things for my writing.

Heck, my writing is largely online these days.

And before you remind me to use my phone as a hot spot, I will point out that I never bothered with much of a data plan for my phone because I used internet instead.

Conspiracy. I’m telling you.

The loss of my internet connection was a loss of a surprising amount of my normal activity.

It was a learning experience, for sure.

No Netflix or Prime Video. No YouTube instructional videos (no new crafting skills for me). Fortunately, I had a number of books downloaded to the Kindle app on my tablet and I do read more than I watch videos.

No online writers and writing. That was a bigger challenge. I could write anything I wanted but I couldn’t share any of it or read my favorite writers.

I had no access to any of my writing groups. No chats on Slack, no news feeds on Facebook.

It was strange how isolated that made me feel.

I could use my email, thanks to the small data plan I have for my phone. This was great because I could, at least, stay in touch with my long-time writing partner. We live roughly 1,600 miles from one another, but we’ve been writing co-conspirators and friends for many years.

While I did have to miss our weekly online meeting, we could talk a bit about the process of turning her recent novel into an audiobook and I was able to listen to the audition files sent to her by prospective narrators.

I’m not addicted.

I did not enjoy being without my internet all week long. It was a royal pain in the posterior and it interrupted more of my life than I could have guessed.

Still, I was relieved to find I’m not actually addicted. Dependent? Well, yes. But not addicted.

I continued with other, normal, non-connected activities such as reading, knitting, day-to-day chores, and so on.

My poor Echo Dot complained a few times about the lack of connection, but I managed to set my own timers and write out my own to-do and grocery lists, just fine.

We were able to get groceries into the house without placing an order first.

I didn’t display any of the usual signs of withdrawal that would indicate addiction.

It isn’t that I was concerned about it, but it was nice to know.

There is a definite desire to keep it that way. The internet is a useful tool and a great source of entertainment, but I don’t want it to be more than that. If that Facebook meme offering a million dollars in exchange for living six months without internet ever became a reality, I’d like to walk away with the million bucks.

You’ve got to take steps.

A quick internet search (yes, I see the irony of this) yields a lot of advice on the subject.

In general, the consensus is to engage in alternative activities, particularly ones that involve face-to-face interaction with people and no electronic connectivity.

Further, they all suggest setting limits on internet access. In fact, there is a surprising array of apps to time your usage, block particularly distracting sites such as social networks, and so on.

In short, the goal is to seriously micromanage the time you spend online and hold yourself accountable for every minute.

And then, there’s the reality.

Um, right. No, not going to happen. Realistically, I don’t see myself doing all that.

However, I do have a variety of non-connected activities and I’ll be sure to continue those. I will make a point of closing browser windows when I want to focus on writing.

I’ll set the laptop or phone aside in favor of conversation or a book.

I’ll be vigilant. I’ll pay attention. I just won’t hyperventilate about it and hope that will be enough.

Perhaps I should take a more serious attitude, but I find myself resting on the recent demonstration of my ability to get along without internet. I feel okay about it.

I might even go so far as to suggest others take a few days off from the World Wide Web, just to see how it goes for them.

As I said, it’s a learning experience and I think it is worth knowing a person’s level of dependence.

I’m not eager, however, to check on my dependence again for a good, long while.