A year without Internet: Paul Miller recounts his experience - JOL Press

Screenshot DR, DR The Verge capture screen / Youtube

Withdrawal

time of new technologies, applications and the development of social networks, the virtual withdrawal of Paul Miller is an achievement. For a year, the 26 year old American has not surfed the web, emails checker or “liker” comments on Facebook. Convinced that the Internet made it unproductive and that the Web would “corrupt his soul,” Paul Miller decided on 30 April 2012 at 23:59, unplug the internet cable and swap his smartphone against an old laptop April 30, 2012. “I felt really good. I felt free, “ tells the young man on the site The Verge .

During the first weeks, concentration improves, it will return to the sport, lose weight. It also has more time to read and write “It’s boredom and lack of stimulation that lead me to do things like writing and spending time with others,” he says. He even managed to read hundreds of pages of Odyssey in a short time, a chore before.

nuanced balance

But over time the creativity and enthusiasm of the first week fizzle … The initial momentum becomes “passive consumption and social withdrawal” tells the blog of Big Browser ‘em > World . “A dozen letters a week can be as oppressive a hundred emails a day” says Paul Miller The Verge convinced that “the Internet problems arose just as much without the Internet, even if they otherwise showed “

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In search of the “real Paul”

Convinced that disconnecting it can find the “real Paul ,” the young man said that real life will surely awaits on the other side of the web browser. “I was wrong,” he said. “I read so many blog posts and magazine articles and books on how the Internet makes us lonely or stupid that I started to believe (…) But the internet is not an individual pursuit, it is something we do with each other. The Internet is where people are. “

“At least I am connected”

When it reconnects to the Internet, May 1, 2013, twelve months later, the young man realizes that he does not know well use the network of networks. It distracted, click on bad links. Paul Miller is aware that it will be months of time for reading, writing or introspection “But at least I am connected,” he found

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