How I lived for a year with no personal internet

​​SMXLL

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Here’s a tiny confession: so I’ve been living without internet for a year. On purpose.

Yep, you can close those mouths hanging open ☺️

I know in a world of technology, where absolutely everything runs on internet, it’s hard to disconnect.

So about an year and a half ago, to the date, I realized technology was taking up too much of my time. I was either watching shows all the time, on my phone nonstop… Then one night me and my fiancé were in a restaurant and I took note of all the couples there on their phones instead of talking to each other.

It was an eye opener. We never did that at a restaurant, but in our own private time there were a few instances where we’d be on our phones rather than conversing. I’ve had friends with whom I’d hang out, wanting to catch up after ages, and they’d be on their phones the entire time.

It became aggravating and made me increasingly feel like I’m living in a very socially disconnected world. I craved interaction and… real face time. Plus, at the time we were planning our wedding, and the stress of it was exhausting.

So, smack in the middle of it, we cut it off: smartphones, internet. We bought 2 prepaid phones that only had voice and texts. And we resorted to doing everything the old school way. For banking, we’d call in. For road trips, we’d print the map or buy a map, etc.

And movies and shows? We got reacquainted to our local library.

In reality, the only time we used the internet was at work during work hours, for work-related activities (including marketing and networking for our respective passions).

The results?

1. More connection time, face to face
2. More free time to do what we liked: spend with the dogs, go jogging, etc
3. Less caring of what people thought, since we didn’t focus on social media
4. More in tune with the reality of the world – we were reading newspapers, not just what the Facebook feeds gave us to read based on some algorithm
5. More stimulating conversation
6. More time try out new things in the city and around our home, because we became aware of all these new opportunities advertised at our local library and recreation centre, eg. Museum passes, cave snorkelling, different classes, etc.
7. Saving money

But the greater thing I learned, is that having smartphones, tablets, and the internet at your fingertips is not the centre of the universe. Being aware of the world around you, and making connections are way more important.

It also definitely continued to be an eye opener on our entourage and how many of those people (including young family members) were obsessed with the newest games, social media, Netflix… And would not let it go.

The gasps and horrified stares when people found out we didn’t have internet were a good riot