#1: How Long Could I Live Without the Internet?
What Prompted This Question
I’m asking this question while touring around deepest darkest Cornwall on holiday in our motorhome. Yes, this one here although this picture was taken a few years ago. The campsite that we're now booked into is simple but in a stunning location, half a mile from the coast in a wooded valley. But, what I didn't realise when I made the reservation is that there’s next to no internet. Yikes! How am I going to remain in contact with my mum, who I care for, access research for my writing, pick up urgent messages and keep my streak on Duolingo? In spite of all my misgivings I honoured our four day booking and decided to try going native!
At the top of the field there’s an area where there's limited internet access. If I wait for ages a message might download. I'd forgotten to tell my son that his uncle was arriving for a visit that day, so I managed to send a WhatsApp message about that. But for other communication I've had to wait until we've cycled to a place where we have signal.
Each day I make a little list of the things that I need to action: contacting Mum, paying for the next campsite, picking up messages and doing a quick Duolingo maths lesson so I don’t lose my four year long streak!
But it’s got me wondering. How dependent am I on modern technology? Is what I do online really essential? Do I need to be available 24/7? And how long could I go without access to the internet altogether?
Let's Dive Deeper
When I haven't got access to the internet my phone is still a pretty useful gadget. For example, I can use it to take photos, tell the time, access and edit my to-do lists and entertain myself with downloaded videos and podcasts. I understand that I could even contact emergency services if I needed to because something would kick in that bypasses my apparent lack of signal.
What I'm missing is the immediacy of access to people, information and services. I've become accustomed to this. If I want to know something, I can normally find out within seconds. The weather forecast and bits and pieces for researching this article spring to mind. I can contact people at the drop of a hat and chat to them as soon as something I want or need to say comes to mind. If they want to speak to me, that is. Mum is always happy to hear from me but this isn't always the case with my son who's in his early twenties!
And then there's my Duolingo streak. I've been using the popular language learning app since before lockdown and my current official streak is over five years long. I actually dispute this and think it is longer, but a glitch in the system a few years back reset it.
The reason that I started to use Duolingo was that I wanted to learn Spanish from scratch. I completed the course and then decided to brush up on my schoolgirl French too. I'm going to save how effective this has been for another post but, for now, I'll say that the main reason that I downloaded the app was for language learning.
So why oh why did I find myself in a Cornish pub doing a maths lesson because it's the quickest way of retaining my streak? And I also found myself fretting about losing my place in the top 'Diamond League'. What's more, another app I've recently downloaded is nagging me about keeping up my streak there too. This one is about my prayer life, for goodness sake!
Apparently, this isn't as daft as it sounds. Research into the psychology of streaks suggests that once we've established a run of consecutive behaviours, we can become strongly motivated to preserve it. The motivation can subtly change from I want to do this to I don't want to break my streak. The longer the streak becomes, the greater the perceived loss of giving it up.
In my case, the original activity is meaningful to me. I want to learn languages and I enjoy doing the maths exercises. But somewhere along the way, preserving the streak has become an additional motivation. Perhaps that's worth noticing.
But now let's look at the other things that I use my phone for. It's a gadget that's replaced lots of other things: a camera, address book, photo album, diary, calculator, a book, whatever device I used to listen to music on, my wallet... The list goes on and on. I don't even carry a pencil and paper anymore. If my phone were to break in the middle of nowhere I'm sure that I could revert to old technology. I'd just need a hefty bag to carry all these bits and pieces.
All the types of apps that I've mentioned above don't need constant connectivity, but some things that I've come to rely on do: access to my bank and the utility companies, maps, reading newspapers, keeping up with social media, doing New York Times games, gleaning information from AI and search engines, managing health appointments and, of course, let's not forget the phone itself. If the internet is missing, inevitably I can't make calls either.
I could adapt, but it would be a pain in the arse. And that bag would need to be even bigger. I'm thinking of one of those big bags marked SWAG carried by robbers!
Yes, I have to say that technology has undoubtedly transformed my life for the better and literally lightened my load. The interesting question isn't therefore whether technology is good or bad, or whether I should be trying to live without it. Perhaps it's about how I'm using it.
Are there things that I could happily do without and others where I would really struggle with their absence? What aspects of my internet use have meaning and what parts are simply filling a gap? Am I actively choosing what to do online to meet a need, or am I responding to whatever happens to pop up on the screen?
It's the latter that concerns me, and I think I'm right to pay attention to it. After all, research into digital behaviour suggests that both what we do with technology and how long we spend doing it can matter. A recent study published in Scientific Reports found that intentional technology use was associated with better attentional control and wellbeing, while passive, habitual use was associated with poorer outcomes, even after taking overall screen time into account. This makes sense to me. I always thought that an instructional YouTube video watched for an hour couldn't possibly be equivalent to the same amount of time disappearing down a rabbit hole of Facebook Reels.
Something I’ve Noticed
I've been mindful of my internet use for a while now. Social media used to take up far too much of my time, but I've cracked that. I deleted all the apps from my phone and, instead, have to go onto a browser if I want to look at my feed. This simple change has significantly reduced my old scrolling habit. I probably spend five minutes on Facebook each day now and don't really miss it if I can't get online. Months go by without a visit to Instagram, Pinterest or the other social media sites that I used to use.
Quite a significant chunk of my day, more than half an hour, used to be given over to doing puzzles. I told myself that they were keeping my brain working. However, I reckon there are things I'd rather give that time to, especially when I bemoan the fact that I don't have enough time to write or study. I've also started volunteering with a commitment of a few hours each week, so I figured that something had to go to make room for this.
The Guardian Quick Crossword was a recent victim of my cull. All that's left now is the New York Times Spelling Bee, and I'm wondering if that might be set aside shortly too. Okay, I'm not going to say that I'll never pore over a puzzle again, but I want to make doing them less habitual to make space for activities that I will value more.
Because of my caring roles, I'm loath to stop carrying my phone altogether in case there's an emergency. But I have been relenting sometimes. It can't go sea swimming with me! And I deliberately leave it in another room when I'm focusing on something else in the house. I wouldn't expect other people to be available 24/7, so why should I?
But there's still something about my relationship with my phone that doesn't sit quite right. I'd quite like to go on a retreat one day, perhaps one of those ten-day Vipassana ones where I could really focus on meditation. However, whenever I think about it, doubts arise. How could I possibly live without my phone for that time? So even though I've cracked some unhelpful habits, perhaps this shows that there's still a bit of work to do.
What I’ve Found
Here's the Guardian article that gave me food for thought about keeping app streaks going. I can't quite bring myself to break my enormous one on Duolingo yet but I'm not even going there with that recently downloaded Bible app!
2. Here's a practical guide for making social media use more intentional from the Center for Human Technology. It helps you think about your social media use, whether it's healthy and what you can do if you'd like things to change.
This recent guide from Clinic Barcelona draws the distinction between using your phone lot and having a problem with it. There's some great practical tips if it's the latter. It introduces a lovely term 'Nomophobia' which means no mobile phone phobia. Is this what's stopping me booking a retreat?
Try This
I'm going to invite you to be more mindful about what you use the phone or the internet for. You're probably going to find that some things are genuinely useful or enjoyable. But some of the usage habits that you've acquired may not be adding much to your life.
Every so often do a little audit of what you're up to. This will give you information about what you might like to change. Here's some ideas:
Remove an app or two: I review mine periodically to work out what's no longer serving me. I would reiterate that deleting social media apps has been such a game changer.
Turn off unnecessary notifications: Here's a tip. If you get annoyed by a particular app's pop-up messages, it probably isn't worth the distraction.
Plan breaks from your phone: Leave it in another room, at home when you're out, or turn it off at certain times. If it's difficult go somewhere and plunge yourself in water. It wouldn't do your phone any favours if you took it!
And if you try any of these tips, I'd love to know what you discover. Did one small change make a big difference?
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