We’ve been without our connection to the internet for ten days now, and it will be many more before we are reconnected. I type this with one finger on my iPhone.
I’ve been sidetracked from my reviewing projects, making me restless. Living without the internet is revealing, reminding me of life back in the 1980s, but it also shows just how much I depend on high-speed internet in my daily living.
I can’t pursue my social media activities, stream TV, music, audio books, or chat with Alexa. I’m cut off from my security cameras, printer, and cloud storage. My tablets are useless. I can write with Word like it’s 1989 but the results just sit on the hard drive.
I can turn on a Wi-Fi hotspot on my phone, but the one bar service only lets Microsoft Edge run in an unusable slow mode. There are so many background processes going on in a modern computer that they need high speed internet to function.
I’m left feeling restless. I would be feeling much worse if I didn’t have my iPhone. This experience has shown me that I’ve built a life around being connected. But it also makes me wonder if I shouldn’t reevaluate how I live.
I grew up addicted to television and now I’m also addicted to computers and the internet. We’re evolving towards a hive mind. The second AT&T repairman who came to the house told me he likes living in the country and getting away from computers and networks. I don’t know if I could do that anymore.
You’d think I’d just read books, but my feelings of Internet withdrawal won’t let me. I wonder how long it will take to get over that. Could I ever go back to living like we did in the 1980s, or 1970s?
I’m trying to imagine a society where the only people you talk to must be in the same room. It boggles my mind.
Just imagine living without smartphones! Or even cellphones. I’ve tried watching over the air TV but it’s abysmal. I’m back to playing CDs and DVDs, but it’s so damn restrictive. I wonder what life would be like if I was limited to vinyl, paperbacks, newspapers, and TV from an antenna. Hell — thing about going back to typewriters!!!
They say you don’t know what you miss until it’s gone. Damn, those old sayings can be painfully true.
James Wallace Harris, 8/8/23
Classics of Science Fiction 
I can relate! Our internet was down for only a day and the same day we lost air conditioning (in FL). Made us realize how dependent we are on both, within minutes! Especially because I was in the middle of launching a book I compiled (Hayden Howard’s 1960s scifi short story collection) with so much to do surrounding a launch. A brief respite from the internet was probably good for us, but 10+ days as you’ve had would be rough!
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I’ve wondered if I shouldn’t give up something significant like the internet every year for Lent. Even though I’m not religious, it might be a very insightful learning experience.
I went to your site about publishing your stepfather’s stories. That was interesting. Post a link here in your reply. I can’t figure how to do it with just my iPhone.
Was his stories published in the science fiction magazines?
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Jim, yes, all his short SF was in the SF magazines. He started with Planet Stories and later appeared in Galaxy, F&SF, If, and Analog. All the right magazines! Of those, he published more in Galaxy than in any other magazine. The total number of short works is about 19.
I sympathise with your internet plight. The same thing happened to me recently, and it’s worse for me because I never joined the smartphone set. I have one, but I don’t carry data on it, so I can’t really use the phone for internet other than on a Bronze Age level. My computer and internet are both fairly avant garde for about 2010. I’ve long started to feel the way Robert Silverberg says he does: You reach an age where you just don’t want to keep up any more.
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I guess I’m still young enough at 71 to want to stay current. But that means having one cable to my house that’s no longer there.
It’s funny, but that cable is a phone cable that was there for decades. We no longer have a house phone, but still needed that cable for internet.
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Glad you are back, I was wondering where you were. Maybe you should practice meditation, a classic form which is all about complete disengagement. Even from your own mind.
I bought the books you mentioned a few posts back, Futures Past by Jim Emerson. Really nice. Also I was engaged with Jim in an e-mail exchange about some postal difficulties. A really nice guy.
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Actually, I kind of long for the days when people had to be in the same room. It somehow seemed more human, more deeply gratifying than social media. I once saw three people sitting on the same bench not talking. Turns out, they were texting each other on their phones. That certainly made me question just how meaningful social media really is. Take someone from the 19th. century and plop them in our society. They would hardly know what to do with themselves; possibly even be somewhat unnerved and frightened. I remember when you could hear the sound of children’s laughter outside. Now, it’s so strangely quiet.
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That’s true. It would be better, especially for younger people. But I have some health problems that make me prefer staying home. We have people over regularly. And me and my wife do things together. But for certain friends and activities I need to use social media.
However, after almost two weeks without internet except through my phone I am adapting. Tonight my wife is out to dinner with her friends and I’m very happy to play music CDs really loud.
I’ve always been able to adapt and find something fun to do, either by myself or with friends.
I guess I do like a mix of physical friends and cyber friends.
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Oh. Lovely reply James. And yes definitely. Internet connections do have their advantages.
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This sounds horrifying–hang in there! Our local Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Group just got back together in person after a covid-imposed banishment to Zoom meetings that lasted three years. So strange to see people in three dimensions again!
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