2025-01-15 Internet-free Sunday

The modern internet is a blessing and a curse at the same time.  While
it is a vast source of information, enables people all around the
globe to communicate effortlessly at a very low cost and has made many
things, like shopping and traveling, more convenient it also comes
with a cost:

- social media is constantly grabbing our intention and gaming our
  monkey brains

- there is an all-encompassing surveillance of our internet activities
  by big tech

- it lead to a news cycle that is increasing ever faster

- it gave rise to a culture war over facts, truths, opinions and "fake
  news"

If you are terminally online like me you know that this massive
information overload can really overwhelm the senses.  Some people
seek relief by using the slow-paced smolnet but I fear many of us see
the gopher-space as just another feed to scroll through.  The only
real solution to tackle the root of this problem, namely reducing
internet usage itself.  I don't advocate for canceling your internet
service and become a Luddite but I would strongly suggest taking a
time-out once in a while.  In my experience the hardest part about
signing off is the fear of missing out (FOMO).  The world is turning
at breakneck speed while you are left out because your digital
umbilical cord is severed.  While I think this is more a less just an
illusion I mitigate this feeling of discomfort by cutting off the
internet on Sundays when there is less media coverage and generally
less public activity.

So, every other weekend I turn off my router at Saturday evening
before going to bed and I turn it back on Monday morning.  While being
offline you can start to process the vast amounts of information you
are exposed to during the week.  You create a time and space for
yourself where you are able to actively organize your thoughts instead
of just passively consuming the thoughts of others.  Here you can at
least try to get back some structure in an inherently chaotic world.

I advocate for internet-free Sundays in my social circle but it just
does not resonate with people.  I realize that I am an internet junkie
and I believe so is everybody else.  But people don't seem to care or
even acknowledge the problem.  So, either my addiction is worse than
everybody else's or they just fear to give something up that deep down
they know they can't live without.

There are folks staring like zombies at their mobile devices whenever
there is the slightest chance of boredom setting in.  They are
destroying their attention spans by browsing brain-rot TikToks and
YouTube shorts.  They stress themselves out because they feel obliged
to promptly respond to every text message they get.  They endlessly
doom-scroll their social-media feeds at 2 AM in the morning because
they cannot sleep.  They have a warped sense of reality because
everything on the internet is fake and gay.  They mindlessly engage in
online flame-wars over just about anything.  They are getting drowned
in a torrent of never-ending notifications.  But they don't want to
put away their phone for even just a single day. Sad!

If any of this also applies to you, do yourself a favor and find the
courage to just log off every now and then.  If you really want to
push it you can extend the internet-free time to multiple days and/or
you can go fully analog by turning off all your digital devices.  I'm
going to write more about this topic in future articles.