Should I try a Digital Disconnection?

Periodically I pause and wonder at the changes that have taken place over the last 30 years and how much the internet has infiltrated our lives. And, like many others, I wonder whether the ubiquity of the internet is a good or bad thing.

I started my own internet journey in the late 1980’s with a dial up connection to Prodigy. Over time I moved through AOL, then Compuserve, then to a local provider, Homnet, in Warner Robins, GA. It would be several more years before I was connected full-time.

Because these were dial-up services, you weren’t constantly connected. In fact, as I recall, if you were connected for too long without activity you were automatically disconnected. After all, these providers only had a limited number of modems and they wanted to provide the greatest value to the greatest number of people. This intermittent connection meant that you had the time and space to do other things. To read. To get outside. To socialize. And the list goes on.

The Current Status#

Today, of course, we’re all connected 24/7 not only with our computers but on our phones, watches, and whatever other devices we choose to carry. This kind of always-on link to the world wide web means that we always have access to whatever informational resources we need. It also means we are constantly at the mercy of messages, emails, and all the other distractions that the modern internet provides.

Recognizing this, it is not uncommon to see people talking about doing a “digital detox”. What they generally mean is that they are taking a temporary break from their devices. Maybe it’s a day or two. Maybe it’s a week. But very few people will go much beyond a couple of weeks of being disconnected from the internet. They may minimize that connection to some degree, but few truly limit their connections to any significant degree.

What prompted this particular post was a "/now" post by Derek Sivers. I had never heard of Sivers until I ran across that post (which I found while searching for something else). As it turns out, though, Derek Sivers is the founder of CDBaby and HostBaby, both music hosting sites. He is also the author of several books and host of over 250 podcasts. He is, perhaps, one of the least likely folks to step back from the internet. Yet, according to his “/now” page, that is exactly what he did.

He states that he moved to a home outside Wellington, NZ which did not have internet. Each day he drives into town to upload his work, check and respond to email, and do whatever online research he needed to do before heading back home to work. It is interesting that he finds that being disconnected from the internet for 23 hours a day has provided him the breathing room to be more productive. He is learning to program PostgreSQL. He is learning Chinese. He is reading more. He is writing more.

And that list of benefits has a certain appeal to me.

While it is appealing, and though reducing my own reliance on the internet is something that I give periodic thought to, the truth is, though, I am highly invested in computers and networking. I self-host quite a number of services as I’ve shared in other posts and those services, to be useful, must be pretty much always connected. Could I live without them? Sure. I have in the past. But the greater question is, “do I want to?” And the answer there is, “I’m not sure.”

More significantly, I’m not exactly sure how I’d accomplish that. The easiest way is simply to disconnect the internet. But our TVs are connected to it in order to stream the TV shows my wife watches (I watch very little TV. ¹ But she does, so disconnecting the internet is a no-go. I could just disconnect my computers, which seems to be a more functional way of working. But, did you know that most computers now almost require a connection in order to work correctly? That’s actually one of the reasons I like Linux/BSD based systems – no internet required. The other reason is that, even if I disconnected the network, there’s still internet on my phone and that always balks when I turn off the internet for very long.

In addition to the logistical issues mentioned above, the practical issues of writing blog posts come into play, as well.

The Lenovo laptop I use for writing these posts was intended to be a distraction-free writing space. I deliberately use the i3 window manager which has no icons and other distracting “desktop” apps to distract me. Virtually everything is keyboard driven. And, my original intent was to keep it disconnected except when uploading files. For the most part this works pretty well, but (and there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there?) I also find I need to look up information on the internet in order to provide valid references for my comments, to validate my own thinking, or to answer questions that arise as I write. Having always-on internet makes that process much, much easier. Yes, I could use another device for those searches, but that introduces just as much, if not more, disruption to my work.

So, what’s a fellow to do?#

I love the idea that, like Derek Sivers, I might find myself more productive, more in tune with the world around me by disconnecting more often. But, I think going cold turkey is not the right way to go about it. Rather, I think that setting aside specific times of the day for various activities might be a more approachable way to do it.

Time to Experiment#

So, here’s my tentative plan:

• Set aside 30 minutes first thing in the morning to check emails, catch up on the news that I follow (mostly tech news)

• Spend 30 - 45 minutes doing any research for upcoming posts

• Set aside at least an hour each day for literature/fiction reading (more time is better!)

• Set aside at least an hour a day for non-fiction reading (again, more is better and since this is where I spend most of my reading time, I will likely do much more than an hour.)

• Set aside at least 30 minutes to writing (blog posts, journaling, etc)

• 20 - 30 minutes for ‘brainstorming’ ideas for writing.

• 20 - 30 minutes for reviewing and organizing notes I collect on various concepts

The rest of the day is for getting outside, walking, doing yard work, being ACTIVE and for whatever socializing I do.

If I can adhere to this plan, I’m being “productive” about four hours a day. The rest of the day is mine to do as I please. Hopefully, though, NOT on the internet!