Why I've Broken up With the Internet

The power of being disconnected in an instantly connected world

Who knew my world would fall apart when I no longer had WiFi connection? Okay, okay, I am of course being melodramatic. I have somehow reached the point of surviving the strange isolation of not having secure phone signal, a landline (not that this is the most pressing issue), or worst of all - not being able to log onto WiFi. It’s been a week. A week of having this luxury stripped away from us while we wait for our broadband provider to work its magic in a situation beyond anyone’s control. All we want for Christmas is WiFi.

I don’t think you can truly appreciate something until it’s gone. It’s like coming down with a cold and vowing never ever to take breathing freely through your nostrils for granted ever again. I have learnt this week how much I have taken this modern technology - instant Internet connection - for granted. I wake up. I send a message to my Whatsapp accountability group (for a collective church daily devotional reading). I log on to my mindfulness app. I scroll on Facebook. I track my calories in an app. I have a random question and know that Google will be able to provide the answer. I check my online banking app. We live in a world where we use the Internet all the time. We are constantly available. The world is available to us in an instance. Please don’t tell our Internet provider but I do wonder if there is something to learn from disconnecting from the Internet? (We still want that mini hub, please and thank you)

I have somehow found myself becoming more efficient. Here we go again - my obsession with time is still very much real. When I do have WiFi, I find myself maximising my usage. I know I only have so long to get so much done. I don’t want to waste my precious WiFi time mindlessly scrolling. I want to get things done. 

I find myself asking: Does that message require an immediate response or can it wait until tomorrow? This is not a personal reflection on the sender. But within the world of limited WiFi and maximising this time, these are the thoughts that enter my mind. We feel the need to apologise when we don’t reply instantly. It feels almost rude if we don’t reply within a certain period of time. ‘But they’ve been online!’ By taking a little longer to reply than I usually would, I have learnt that no one truly really minds. At least, they haven’t shown it. I reply to seemingly more pressing messages when I’m connected to WiFi and the rest - well, they can wait. 

We live in a fast-paced world but things don’t change THAT quickly. Although I feel the need to know what Sam Thompson is posting by the hour, I can guarantee that nothing dramatic will happen in his life between 5pm and 9am the next day. I can catch up. The fear of missing out is real. We constantly feel the need to know exactly what’s going on around us. There is a sort of freedom of creating a bit of space between having that knowledge. Sure, it’s lovely to keep up to date with news (people news anyway, the World news is vastly different). But that news can wait. It will still be there in the morning. 

I don’t want to break up with the Internet completely. I like it. In fact, I sort of love it really. I run an online business. It’s part of my work. It’s part of my social life. It’s part of my creative outlet. But I’ve enjoyed re-evaluating my relationship with it. Do I need to constantly be connected? No. Do I miss out on a huge amount? Not really. Does my business fall apart if I’m not switched on 24/7? Thankfully not. Does my mind have some much-needed breathing space? Oh yes it does!

Be careful what you wish for - one of my monthly goals was to reduce my screen time. This wasn’t quite the route I wanted to take to do so. It could be a week or two before normal WiFi connection is resumed (with the promise of a mini hub before then). If you had asked me two days ago how I was feeling about this? I was pretty fed up to say the least. Now? I am fully basking in this enforced stillness during such a naturally busy period. Internet connection is a luxury. And for many of us living in a modern world, it’s understandably a necessity. But sometimes, just sometimes, a small period of being disconnected is the biggest luxury of them all.