I'm leaving the internet for a year

“Now I want to see the internet at a distance. By separating myself from the constant connectivity, I can see which aspects are truly valuable, which are distractions for me, and which parts are corrupting my very soul. What I worry is that I’m so “adept” at the internet that I’ve found ways to fill every crevice of my life with it, and I’m pretty sure the internet has invaded some places where it doesn’t belong.”

See, I can’t even imagine doing my job without the internet. Technically I couldn’t (the in-house audio and text editing software is connected and sent via the internet). But beyond that— finding stories, doing research, staying up on news, even tracking down guests— I can’t imagine what it was like doing this prior to Google and Facebook. I imagine you tracked down a lot less non-obvious people in city’s you’d never heard of, and spent more time talking to mayors and spokespeople. Also you used phonebooks.

That said, I understand what he’s getting at. I know I would probably be better of disconnecting more often. But that’s time management, not the internet. I often wonder what I would do if I wasn’t on the internet. Probably watch more TV or play video games. That’s what most people I know who don’t use the internet in their spare time do.

What I’d really like to know is— was there ever a time where people used their spare time in a generally “productive” way? How do you even define that?

It will be interesting to check back in on this a year.

Source: theverge.com