Yes, I am still here. Though you wouldn't know it from my blogging output.
This transition to a new/old state has been much more involved than I thought possible. One of the side effects of my persistent transitory circumstance has been a lack of internet access. I have become like a web-vampire, haunting coffee houses, smoothie shops, and public libraries for (free) internet access. And when I have not had access, I have been largely un-plugged from the virtual world--a situation I have not found myself to be in for over a decade.
But there also has been something strangely...blissful about not being connected 24-7.
I know that there is an emergent phenomenon called "web holidays" where folks purposefully disconnect from email, internet and the like for some period of time. Has anyone tried this? If so, what did you hope to gain from the experience? What did you actually accomplish? What was the hardest thing about being disconnected?
For me, I at first felt a little like Seven of Nine when she was first unhooked from the Borg Collective. So lonely...so quiet... But slowly I started to come to terms with my new situation. For example: Did you know there are humongous books in which can be found words, arranged alphabetically, and their pronunciations and definitions? Kind of like dictionary.com? Did you know you can look up businesses and their addresses and telephone numbers in another big book, its onion-skin thin pages a pale yellow? And there are large folded sheets of paper on which are drawn a city's streets and landmarks--these are not specific to the location you want to go to (unlike Mapquest) but they are quite handy just the same.
Yes. Do not despair. You are not alone in the wide world just because you are unplugged from the www.
Posted by perry032 at July 27, 2008 11:17 AM