Patrick Rhone is Nonline

Rhone’s Sabbatical

In March, writer Patrick Rhone posted a notice that he was taking a break from online publishing to work on his next book.

“This includes my websites and social media accounts,” he explained. “No blog posts, no tweets, no status updates.”

He concluded: “I’m nonline.”

This adjective caught my attention as I hadn’t heard it before. Here’s the definition Rhone linked to in his notice:

nonline (adj.): No longer found on, made available to, or primarily accessed or contacted through the Internet.

I like this phrase and hope it catches on as something that more and more people feel empowered to use to untether from digital distraction as needed.

Perhaps more important than the phrase itself is the trend it represents. Cultural revolutions, like the one we’re currently experiencing courtesy of the internet, are disorienting at first. New vocabulary — like nonline, or deep work, or attention merchants — can play a key role in helping people sort through this confusion and figure out how best to react and thrive in a changing world.

(Hat tip: Spencer S.)