Ask Slashdot: Living Without Internet At-Home Access? 462
An anonymous reader writes "I've decided that the internet is no longer a positive influence on my life, and am interested in canceling my service. In the interest of not forgoing all digital conveniences, I plan to set up a small intranet, hosting a few resources that I think I'd like to have access to on a regular basis (e.g. a text dump of Wikipedia). I'll also still have access to the internet at my office, and have easy access to public Wi-Fi at libraries and coffee shops. My questions are thus: Does anybody have any experience living without the internet? What major nuisances did you encounter? What resources should I put on my intranet? Is there anything I'm overlooking?"
Obvious (Score:2, Insightful)
Porn
I believe you've mispelt (Score:2, Insightful)
"I think the Internet contains things which are a negative influence on my life, and I haven't the self-control *not to do those things and go those places*."
There; FTFY.
you are cheating yourself (Score:2, Insightful)
Sounds to me like you are not living without internet. Just disconnecting it and making it on demand.
Try it out for yourself. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the best thing to do is simply try it for a while. This is as easy as unplugging the physical connection to your ISP. Deal with issues as the come up.
Wrong Place? (Score:5, Insightful)
[quote] Does anybody have any experience living without the internet? [/quote]
Is the *internet* really the best place to ask this question?
Re:I believe you've mispelt (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No Carrier (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. The first step if you want to prepare for living without an internet: Learn to figure out this sort of stuff without asking about it online.
Besides, it's not the internet that is your problem. The problem isn't your ability to read news, do banking, etc. online but that you waste your time by doing things you shouldn't do. Canceling your internet as a time management method is like realizing that you drove drunk last night and deciding that your problem is the car ownership. If you can't channel your time to something more productive even after realizing the problem, you have a lot bigger issues than the time wasting itself.
Posting on Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
You want to go off the Internet, so your first instinct for advice is to POST TO SLASHDOT?
A) You've come to the wrong place.
B) You'll never make it anyway.
Re:I believe you've mispelt (Score:1, Insightful)
You can't find an internet on your girlfriend.
Doesn't mean I can't keep trying her ports, though, does it?
Re:I believe you've mispelt (Score:4, Insightful)
Also this is not the audience you want. (Score:5, Insightful)
Does anybody have any experience living without the internet?
Yes, but those people can't see your post to Slashdot.
Re:No Carrier (Score:5, Insightful)
Canceling your internet as a time management method is like realizing that you drove drunk last night and deciding that your problem is the car ownership.
Is that not a valid way of dealing with the problem? If you know you can't control your drinking, this seems like an effective way of mitigating the damage it causes.
Re:No Carrier (Score:4, Insightful)
I gave up television for a few years (completely, that is no netflix or anything else), and honestly it's like pushing air around a balloon. The truth is that you only have a finite amount of productive time, and when that time is spent your not going to be able to mentally handle anything too deep. Whether it's reading book, internet, tv, going to bar or whatever - it's not going to feel like you've accomplished anything meaningful.. If you want to reclaim your better productive self cut your hours at work instead.
Re:No Carrier (Score:3, Insightful)
Except that you're more than a little likely to run into something else that you will waste time on, thereby once again avoiding the issue that is _really_ at stake here. This is fighting the symptoms of a problem, not actually tackling the problem that's apparently bothering this person.
Been there, done that, so true. (Score:5, Insightful)
Those of us born before 1985 or so can remember we LIVED WITHOUT INTERNET. We got by just fine. We went to libraries and subscribed to periodicals and bought books for information. We wrote letters on paper, used stamps, and waited days for mail turnaround. We read National Geographic for education and other activities. We survived, we liked it, we didn't notice much missing.
No 'net?
Been there.
Done that.
Was nice.
Don't wanna go back.
Pity the person who does.
Re:Wrong Place? (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyone alive prior to 22:30 hours (Pacific time zone) on October 29, 1969
It depends upon the phrasing. (Score:4, Insightful)
How about changing the phrasing to such:
I drink alcohol to excess
and when I am intoxicated I make dangerous decisions
such as
a. blah blah
b. blah blah
c. blah blah
d. driving drunk
Getting rid of the car will make choice "d" more difficult to implement (but not impossible, you could borrow someone else's car before going out).
And you lose the benefits of owning your own transportation.
Without addressing any of the other secondary issues (a, b and c).
And without addressing the primary issue (drinking too much alcohol for your metabolism).
Re:No Carrier (Score:5, Insightful)
Is that not a valid way of dealing with the problem? If you know you can't control your drinking, this seems like an effective way of mitigating the damage it causes.
I think it's a good start. Perhaps learning how to have better influences in your life involves cutting off the bad ones and learning new habits. It's certainly possible that you'll find other bad habits that waste time (TV, drinking, etc.). But why not try it?
I think the best advice I could give someone is to build an offline library. An offline copy of wikipedia isn't a bad idea. But I'd also concentrate on actual paper books. Take the money you'd spend on an ISP and put it towards books, or magazine subscriptions. I'd also look towards what positive things you can do to replace "the internet". Removing one thing you think is bad isn't going to promote positive change in and of itself.
The people here chiming in about "oh noes, how will you live!" are deluding themselves. It won't be easy, but personally I think it'll be enlightening. Cutting off what you think might be a bad influence on your life can only tell you something about yourself. Maybe it'll tell you that the internet wasn't such a bad influence after all. Maybe it'll change you for the good. Maybe it'll tell you that "the internet" isn't your problem. Maybe you're absolutely right, and the internet was the bad influence in the first place. All of those are good things to learn, but you can't learn them until you do it. Good luck.
Re:No Carrier (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No Carrier (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a valid way of burying the problem. You haven't DEALT with anything, all you've done is push the problem to the side. This is what is wrong with our society. If you can't control yourself, then everything else doesn't matter, you need to step back and get your personal self under control, and if you can't do THAT, you need to seek professional help. PERIOD. Anything and everything else is just feel good bullshit that accomplishes nothing what so ever. Sure, that feel good stuff has a place, but it doesn't replace responsibility.
Now, that being said, if you don't keep chocolate in the house because you will eat it all, that's all fine and good. But if you have to hide your wallet from yourself so you don't go out and buy liquor ($drug_of_choice), then you have failed at self control, rational thought and human decency.
The case at hand, we have a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Mister question asker guy - you are externalizing your very serious INTERNAL issues. First and foremost is apparently a time management problem. More important though, is the fact that you don't seem to care to take any sort of personal responsibility here. Even worse than that, you turn to a large group of enablers for "help". You don't go ask the local drug dealer the best way to kick Heroin. By that same token, you don't ask slashdot how to solve your internet addiction problem. Talk about the blind leading the blind.
Want some serious advice? I know, you don't, but here, I'll offer it anyway. Put down the computer, take a deep breath, and look around yourself. Do you like what you see? If yes - Great, now take a deep breath again and chill the fuck out, everything is fine and you are OK. If no - do something about it. You have a brain, and a body and free will (or something approaching the illusion there of). The only thing keeping you in these surroundings is YOU. YOU, not anyone else, not your childhood and not the totally awesome newest meme. Turn the fucking TV off. Turn off the radio and the computer too. Clean up that pigsty of a place you call home and do something worthwhile for 20 fucking minutes, every day. You'd be absolutely shocked as how much happier you'll be.
Re:Obvious (Score:4, Insightful)
I predict you will spend a lot more time at work, libraries and coffee shops.
Re:Obvious (Score:5, Insightful)
Which shouldn't be a reason to get rid of the internet. It should be a reason to go get laid so you stop obsessing about it. A) Get a hooker. OR B) screw your wife/girlfriend. If shes not willing, see A). OR C) Go out and find a girlfriend. If you can't get one see A).
Best: D) get a girlfriend / wife / hooker who actually likes sex and likes watching porn.
Re:No Carrier (Score:5, Insightful)
You seem to know an awful lot about this person. Maybe wasting time isn't the issue--all we get is "I've decided that the internet is no longer a positive influence on my life". I would say their writing style suggests they posses discipline rather than lack it. They included four clear and mostly specific questions. They wrote carefully and included non-standard but descriptive words (eg. forgoing; thus; nuisances). Time wasting is somewhat low on my list of probable reasons this person wants to get rid of their home internet.
Some other explanations that come to mind (not necessarily in any order): they're sick of wading through garbage online; they want to save money (low probability); they got burned by participating in some online community (high probability; fits the sentence I quoted and perhaps the discipline I noted); they have some internet-related non-time-wasting addiction (eg. porn; gambling).
In any case, people are usually more complex than the first thing that pops into your mind. I often don't like coders because they're such a poor judge of people. They're used to telling computers exactly what to do and being exactly right about cause and effect in that arena. Then they transfer those reactions to real life and act like idiots because of it. Mathematicians do the same thing, though maybe a bit less often (per capita).