going offline (mostly)

Has anyone here simply quit the internet? Or at least gone so cold turkey that you only and check email and a handful of other quick, pragmatic things.

I've been less and less active on FB and twitter but I still find myself farting around on reddit or some other topical site asking myself "why am I sitting here wasting time?" or feeling like I'm superficially projecting my artistic interests and leanings by just browsing other peoples (oft recycled or re-posted) art and culture.

The other factor is pure nostalgia / reflection on my personal past and society's past. I miss the more detached time I had offline or by myself. I'm kind of a holdout - hell I didn't even have a smartphone until late last year. Sometimes I just like to sit and think, or listen to music or watch a movie without feeling like I have to broadcast it to the world. I like driving sometimes so I can do this. But the pondering thing especially, I really miss doing that as often I used to. I really don't like people who are the opposite. Louis CK touches on it here.

...or maybe I just miss web 1.0 internet - back when you would have a 1 on 1 interaction with the internet or people via chat. I feel like instead of making my own little substantive online presence and music and art I dick around via comments and sharing existing stuff. I used to get more obsessed and passionate about certain music and art that way than I do now, or at least I felt I did, than simply clicking around now. Hell that's how I found WATMM after all.

Anyway, just curious if anyone has had the same dilemma.

I've been using internet for more than half my life, so it's definitely part of who I am. But I did quit most of internet about 5 years ago. I got dialup to check e-mail, which made it so I had to send the most garbly lo-fi mp3 demos to planet mu, cuz my connection couldn't take anything larger.

I love tech, but I'm also luddite in philosophy. The way I see it now, is that I should really appreciate and respect my time on the internet, to use it as a learning tool to expand my myiiiind, myaaaan.... I don't like to use it to tune out too much, even though right now I'm typing on WATMM and watching a chess tournament which has nothing to do with anything.

I just don't want the internet to be a replacement for television. The internet is powerful, and with it, we have the whole world at our fingertips. To use it for stupid shit is basically disrespecting Gaia even more than we already do.

All hail internets. Giver of goatse.

I get anxiety with all this social media shit. I am not a social person and I don't feel like I need to share shit or even comment on stuff, but it seems like it's something that you need to do to be somebody.

The reason I post here is because I've been here for over 10 years before all this new fangled web 2.0 social media crap and it a thing I do on the interwebs.

  On 10/19/2015 at 5:38 PM, olo said:

All hail internets. Giver of goatse.

see that's a good example - I remember when that was a baffling image that had more memes than a backstory - gawker ran an article years ago about finding the actual guy and his history and the hole gaping 9 yards of how that came to be...and man, the mystery was just gone. end of an era.

I love the internet, but I just miss the good ole days I guess. Or I need to learn how to manage it. Not be addicted or binge browse. I'm a beer a day kind of guy, I want to be the same way with the interwebs.

  On 10/19/2015 at 5:41 PM, azatoth said:

The reason I post here is because I've been here for over 10 years before all this new fangled web 2.0 social media crap and it a thing I do on the interwebs.

I can relate to that to a certain degree. I guess it's more of a complicated dichotomy. I want to have one foot in it I guess, but often I feel like i start drowning.

I will say this - I use FB in a very specific way - I have a tailored limited feed I hardly check, specific interaction with friends and family and online acquaintances. It's more like another WATMM for me. I dont even use it on my phone because my feed is flooded with stuff I normally block on the non-mobile version. For others I know this is not the case - they comment on public pages, post and like endlessly, have a furious, rat race-esque and superficial interaction with the world. It saddens me for example that many people, especially in the media and music publication, seem to comment on stuff in a 24-36 hr span and then forget ti altogether.

its like an a.d.d. trance. you can always flick the screen to something slightly more interesting at any second. i find myself utterly wasting time and it helps to just look away and release the mouse. the distraction leaves and the annoying awareness of self and life return, neglected.

This is the extent of my browsing in order (mon-fri) rarely on the weekend:

gmail

wdfn (local sports radio)

mlive (local news)

rotten tomatoes

google news

watmm (F5 all work day)

Detroit news

Freep

Merchants wine facebook (beer updates)

vray for c4d

* random youtube on how to make/fix something

switch to 105.1/97.1 detroit sports later in the day

pretty much it. I don't have any social media accounts & try to stay off the grid as much as possible. Don't know what people are always looking at on their phones...but I'm not meant for that world. Just don't give a shit. I do hate all the pop-up videos & just mass marketing ad naseum that pervades everything now. When it happens to watmm, I'll know it's the end.

  On 10/19/2015 at 5:34 PM, peace 7 said:

I've been using internet for more than half my life, so it's definitely part of who I am. But I did quit most of internet about 5 years ago. I got dialup to check e-mail, which made it so I had to send the most garbly lo-fi mp3 demos to planet mu, cuz my connection couldn't take anything larger.

That's crazy! I had a friend who went to dial up mode when he was in Sri Lanka, and he was used to broadband music downloading and streaming. I remember he downloaded kid koala's last LP over like half a day. But he was in Sri Lanka which is seemingly off the grid and beautiful and cheap...so who would need the internet.

If I was living in mountains or tropics or somewhere remote and lovely I wouldn't hesitate to go offline.

  On 10/19/2015 at 5:51 PM, olo said:

This is the extent of my browsing in order (mon-fri) rarely on the weekend:

 

gmail

wdfn (local sports radio)

mlive (local news)

rotten tomatoes

google news

watmm (F5 all work day)

Detroit news

Freep

vray for c4d

* random youtube on how to make/fix something

switch to 105.1/97.1 detroit sports later in the day

 

pretty much it. I don't have any social media accounts & try to stay off the grid as much as possible. Don't know what people are always looking at on their phones...but I'm not meant for that world. Just don't give a shit. I do hate all the pop-up videos & just mass marketing ad naseum that pervades everything now. When it happens to watmm, I'll know it's the end.

Nice. Yeah I'm thinking that's how I'll tackle it. Making a list. I still listen to the local radio myself a lot.

Yeah, social media deeply affected how internet works, but I don't think it is necessary a bad thing. Or is it? At last it all boils down on business, Facebook, Twitter, etc are all focused on business, the social part is the secondary option.

When I'm on facebook or twitter I feel like on a big parade where every one talks and knows each other, but they actually don't. Everything feels so empty, lacking emotions, empathy. I don't like being there. Also the oversaturation of information is something awful.

So yeah, I understand how you feel, and I think moving away from this business strategy is healthy. Ive been trying to do that too, but I still need to check Facebook and shit because my friends/family use it, so I don't have other option. In fact, I think the only "healthy" way to be on this new internet shit is being only in your own circle, just add your friends and family. Fuck everyone/thing else.

Probably my first ever exposure to the internet was late 1993 in NJ. Dial-up was pretty much our only option, and we had that Prodigy service. I remember us spending over an hour one night reading "yo momma" jokes out loud from a list on a single webpage.

The rest is all a blur really

I don't have much trouble with online, even when it's at its most useless. I have troubles with offline, sad but true.

I have been in internet since about 1994 and before that I used to hang out in BBSs. Last May I had my biggest break since then when I was in Cuba for three weeks without using any internet at all. I had no contacts outside the country except for a few SMSs sent to friends and family. It felt really, really fucking weird. I felt completely disconnected from my normal reality at first. Then I kind of slipped into this weird foreigner-in-Cuba life that got a bit out of control because I was so used to be able to talk to someone even when they were not physically there that I had to connect with locals and other foreigners to kind of feed that addiction or whatever. Add to that the general strangeness of Cuba and it was one of the weirdest 3 weeks of my life. Also one of the greatest and most memorable. Also my life expectancy probably has shortened for about 5 years because of that.

I talked to this girl who was a complete social media addict and she had been in a monastery or whatever in Nepal for weeks without even a cell phone and she also admitted that the first week was really hard and weird but after that it was one of the coolest experiences in her life.

I know that having no facebook (like i really don't have a facebook) and no phone (i 100% don't have a phone man) has been unbelievable to people - and it may have hurt my image but fuck my image i've had a much better more fun and socilaler life than before I quit. it's been awesome.

you should try it for a bit if you don't believe me but a week or so won't help - think of it as preparing or training for the next phase which will be completely different.

not sure if i can go 100% offline but i spent almost a year in cambodia with no smartphone and little connectivity and i now remember how to navigate in the dark with no streetlamps or signs and that is cool. got a feeling girls go off me when they see i have no connectivity for them to do whatever with but fuck those girls too. facebook is for losers.

My job is to develop web applications so there is no way to go offline but I will get as far away as possible on holidays

If you were offline you wouldn't be having this sweet in-depth conversation with other people all around the world. With cat emotes!

Trick: all things in moderation. That said, I don't really frequent many websites so it's easier for me I guess.

  On 10/19/2015 at 7:15 PM, fenton said:

I know that having no facebook (like i really don't have a facebook) and no phone (i 100% don't have a phone man) has been unbelievable to people - and it may have hurt my image but fuck my image i've had a much better more fun and socilaler life than before I quit. it's been awesome.

 

you should try it for a bit if you don't believe me but a week or so won't help - think of it as preparing or training for the next phase which will be completely different.

 

 

not sure if i can go 100% offline but i spent almost a year in cambodia with no smartphone and little connectivity and i now remember how to navigate in the dark with no streetlamps or signs and that is cool. got a feeling girls go off me when they see i have no connectivity for them to do whatever with but fuck those girls too. facebook is for losers.

Some inspiring shit there bra. Joe Matt (comic book writer) adopts the same philosophy.

  On 10/19/2015 at 5:51 PM, olo said:

This is the extent of my browsing in order (mon-fri) rarely on the weekend:

 

gmail

wdfn (local sports radio)

mlive (local news)

rotten tomatoes

google news

watmm (F5 all work day)

Detroit news

Freep

Merchants wine facebook (beer updates)

vray for c4d

* random youtube on how to make/fix something

switch to 105.1/97.1 detroit sports later in the day

 

pretty much it. I don't have any social media accounts & try to stay off the grid as much as possible. Don't know what people are always looking at on their phones...but I'm not meant for that world. Just don't give a shit. I do hate all the pop-up videos & just mass marketing ad naseum that pervades everything now. When it happens to watmm, I'll know it's the end.

i know you sneak porn in there somewhere lol

  On 10/19/2015 at 5:27 PM, joshuatx said:

Has anyone here simply quit the internet? Or at least gone so cold turkey that you only and check email and a handful of other quick, pragmatic things.

i did it once a few years ago. i basically quit my job, moved to santa fe new mexico and lived on a reservation with native americans. i only emailed my family. my friends thought i had died. during the day i'd go to a public library and read a book before heading off to work (which started at around noon). i ended up reading a ton of books this way. went on for about a year before my folks thought i was on drugs and demanded i get out of there

  On 10/19/2015 at 7:42 PM, Rubin Farr said:

 

  On 10/19/2015 at 5:51 PM, olo said:

This is the extent of my browsing in order (mon-fri) rarely on the weekend:

 

gmail

wdfn (local sports radio)

mlive (local news)

rotten tomatoes

google news

watmm (F5 all work day)

Detroit news

Freep

Merchants wine facebook (beer updates)

vray for c4d

* random youtube on how to make/fix something

switch to 105.1/97.1 detroit sports later in the day

 

pretty much it. I don't have any social media accounts & try to stay off the grid as much as possible. Don't know what people are always looking at on their phones...but I'm not meant for that world. Just don't give a shit. I do hate all the pop-up videos & just mass marketing ad naseum that pervades everything now. When it happens to watmm, I'll know it's the end.

i know you sneak porn in there somewhere lol

 

It was a sfw list

btw i forgot to add. on reservations, if you're not native american you're not allowed to live in a house alone. so i stayed in a mobile house owned by this guy who was an elder. he'd come in every morning and sit at the computer playing computer games. literally, from 9am to about 6pm. then he'd just walk out. he only said 2 things to me when i lived there in the span of 8-9 months. the first was when i showed up. he said welcome. how are you? stuff like that.

the next time he talked to me was the day i was leaving. he came up to me and said "i need to talk to you". i thought, shit. maybe he's real mad at me because i never paid rent and was going to demand monies. then he goes "do you like chilli? my family has made chilli for decades". he then proceeded to tell me about his time in world war 2 while he cooked chilli for me. i don't necessarily like chilli, but i told him i loved it (actually, it was pretty good chilli)

btw: gordon (the native dude) didn't sleep in this mobile house. he had a separate house with his family (all native). in this mobile house slept myself and his girlfriend who'd come in around 6pm, cook and yack with me. it was such a strange situation. this whole time i had no idea what was happening in the world. i never saw or read a paper, never did anything besides go to hotmail to email my parents (about twice a month). if you had told me the world was at war, i'd have believed you.

I'll be here rotting till the end

**ONLINE

I recently unfollowed everybody on facebook so my fb-feed is pretty much empty. Best decision ever. I still have fb chat if I really need to contact somebody and if I'm really interested in what a certain person is up to I need to go check their profile. A lot less of daily mental trash now.

I do miss the time when I didn't get to be on the internet 24/7 and I used to listen to cd's for hours, just staring at the cover art. Now even while listening to music I have all sorts of distractions going on - like writing a post on watmm. Anyway - maybe just a bit of mental discipline is required to get back those halcyon days. It's an exercise in focus to just keep your mind at one thing at a time, could be helpful for many people.

you can't leave WATMM, it needs sensible people.

good luck on your brave journey joshua, and see you next week!