Am I Crazy?

[Reidme]

I am seriously considering frying my hard drive, cancelling my internet service, and going computerless. Nothing is wrong, but as of late I've been living more and surfing less .... and I get more done. When I get online, the hours melt away with nothing redeeming to show for it. Sure, there will be a loss of email connections with fringe people in my life, and a loss of convenience .... but overall, I'm thinking it might be a good thing.  I've probably wasted days, weeks, maybe months at this point .... doing the normal online shtein, and its been fun, but I'm not sure its worth the time. I will still have brief internet access at work, for essentials, but no email access to speak of.

... After taking a completely aggravating call (from a maniacal ex) on my cellphone about 5 years ago, I had it turned off and haven't looked back. I miss it at times, and aside from the occasional emergency, I've survived.


Can I pull this off? Has it ever been done? Is this crazy talk?

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Yeti would be an expert in this.

Frankly, I've considered it many times.  Unfortunately, I work at home and expense the cost of my internet service to my company to do so.  So, I can't really just shut it off.

[Diomedes]

Do it.  Just send us postcards when you want to post.

[Father Demon]

Hey, DemonchildrenOnTurf, you have 30 messages, 0 are new.
Total time logged in: 28 days, 15 hours and 12 minutes.

And I think I'm on the low end in here......

You'd be a much braver man  than me.  If I gave up the Internet, I'd probably have to talk to my wife.   

[hbionic]

If I gave up the Internet, I'd probably have to talk to my wife.   

How long has MURP been logged in again?

[Phanatic]

I've cut out TV for the most part. I currently am not into any TV shows. When I'm into a show I feel sort of trapped. Like I have to watch it this week, this day. Still watch movies, but there aren't any shows like Lost or whatever that I watch every week. Same principle I guess. Different Media...

[hbionic]

I'm the same way with television. I could care less. Good thing they have shows on dvd's...but even then...you then start to feel obligated to have every fricken dvd known to man.......so...I'm limiting the shtein I get. It creates too much clutter too.

[Philly_Crew]

I am seriously considering frying my hard drive, cancelling my internet service, and going computerless. Nothing is wrong, but as of late I've been living more and surfing less .... and I get more done. When I get online, the hours melt away with nothing redeeming to show for it. Sure, there will be a loss of email connections with fringe people in my life, and a loss of convenience .... but overall, I'm thinking it might be a good thing.  I've probably wasted days, weeks, maybe months at this point .... doing the normal online shtein, and its been fun, but I'm not sure its worth the time. I will still have brief internet access at work, for essentials, but no email access to speak of.

... After taking a completely aggravating call (from a maniacal ex) on my cellphone about 5 years ago, I had it turned off and haven't looked back. I miss it at times, and aside from the occasional emergency, I've survived.


Can I pull this off? Has it ever been done? Is this crazy talk?

You can do it.  I did this at home.  All my e-mail goes to work or my wife's yahoo account, which she accesses on her cell phone (only $5/ month).  I spend more time with the family or at the gym. 

[Fan_Since_64]

Not a bad decision at all, Reidme. I go through periods where I spend too much time on the internet and then pull back, only to get sucked in again. It really does melt the hours away, and it's insidious because it's almost indescernible as it's happening. I've come to adopt the routine of deciding before I go online what it is that I want to do, because that keeps me from mindless surfing, and I just get done what I want to get done and then get off and go do something else. The internet can be useful, and I prefer e-mail to the phone, but it doesn't have to take over my life and I can set boundaries.

As to cell phones, I absolutely refuse to have one. No way. My wife does, and that's fine for her, but I do not care to be plugged in at all times. I've lived quite successfully for 50 years without having one, and suspect that I can go the rest of the way without one, too, and be quite content with that. Sure, in an emergency it would be good to have, but how often does that happen? And gee, I somehow coped with emergencies in the pre-cell phone era and so did everyone else. I'll just keep coping!

[Zanshin]

It sort of depends on what else you'd actually do, I think.  I mean, if you're going to get rid of it only to replace it with another random time-waster, that's sort of pointless.  I don't spend a tremendous amount of time on it at home, though.  I check e-mail, maybe scope out the football headlines from there...but random searching/posting is for the workday .  And since my primary machine is a laptop, if I use it at home, it's usually while I'm watching a game or something.

I have a cell phone, but I don't offer the number to many people, so it isn't a distraction at all.  I probably use 30 minutes a month.  It was handy when my wife was pregnant, though.  Actually, I've been thinking of getting rid of my land line so that I can use my minutes on the cell more efficiently.

I don't watch a ton of TV, so that isn't an issue.  Right now the only show I go out of my way to watch is "Lost".  And now that football is just about done, there's not much on TV for me.

Now, I do go through stretches when I feel like I should throw the PS2 out of the window.  That thing is pretty evil.  When I don't play, I really don't miss it...but when I start playing, it's tough to put down.  The more you play, the more you want to play. I'll even find myself playing when it isn't even fun anymore.  Must be a curse on it. Ridiculous, really.

[Susquehanna Birder]

You're not crazy (for this, anyway). Save yourself while you still have a chance.

[phattymatty]

i've had revelations like this. 

except i'm usually on acid and it has to do with things more important than internet usage.

[mussa]

Total time logged in: 15 days, 22 hours and 8 minutes

I have about 2000 more posts than Demon, yet he's been online more days.   

[hbionic]

Total time logged in: 15 days, 22 hours and 8 minutes

I have about 2000 more posts than Demon, yet he's been online more days.   

His days are based on the Martian Orbit instead of Earths.

[hbionic]

Just like Zanshin said. I find myself saying the same thing about video games...its like some freak time warp...like television...like the internet....

Sometimes I think at that when you die...there will be some kind of stat sheet you'll be able to review and see how many hours you wasted doing dumb shtein...and how many hours you actually used to take advantage of life.

I can tell you right now that my ratio sucks.