The BBC examined the unobvious consequences of shutting down the global network. How to survive in a world without the Internet? Life without the Internet was better

“I am an ordinary person and nothing ordinary is alien to me. Online stupidity has not spared my personality either. Wandering aimlessly through resources, you don’t realize how much time is wasted, real life is a pale ghost behind your back.” Young mother Anna Zlatkovskaya did not use the Internet for a week, recording her feelings every day.

The Internet gives humanity a lot of opportunities, which we use every day at work and at home, but 70% of the time is spent hanging on pages that do not change our lives for the better. So, having stumbled upon yet another Buddhist-Confucian piece of advice online, “clear your mind from the Internet and disconnect,” I decided to follow the recommendation and test myself. I was confident in the purity of my mind, and living a week without the World Wide Web, I thought, would turn out to be a very primitive activity. Looking ahead, I’ll say that I jumped to conclusions.

Monday

Exactly at 00:00 I turned off my mobile phone, closed my laptop and started life without the Internet. Waking up early in the morning, I discovered a completely cold child, and hastened to call a doctor at home. By phone, of course. Looking at my son coughing hoarsely, I rushed to the laptop to Google the symptoms and find out what my boy was sick with. I remembered that I was now disconnected from the network. I stopped. Indeed: is it possible to make an accurate diagnosis on the Internet? Who will I ultimately trust with my child’s health: Google or the doctor? After the doctor left, I looked at the prescriptions for the medications and thought that now I really wanted to find out what Dr. Komarovsky thought about the diagnosis, glance at the baby forums and find out reviews about the medications. But the pediatrician saw my son, listened to his lungs and prescribed treatment based on this, but the Internet does not have such a function. So is it worth spending time reading recommendations from people from whom I will not ask why my son, God forbid, is not getting better? Moms are happy to share advice on childcare on forums, but the question is, how much can and should you trust strangers online?

So, I spent the day quietly, taking time to treat my son. The child was stupefied by care, I was stupefied by thoughts of how to occupy my free time. My mind treacherously demanded a dose of news from Facebook or at least information about the weather, but I held on as best I could. While I was distracted by minor worries, my son stole an android. When I entered the room, he was scrolling through Facebook and trying to click “like” on all the news in a row. My son loves this funny slapping sound of like, and he can write something in the status by clicking on all the letters. And T9 itself will add ridiculous obscenity. It turns out that I showed an example to the child of how to kill time. He has a lot more toys than I had as a child, the basket is overflowing, and the first thing he runs to is the android. Both of us, like hamsters in a cage spinning one wheel from idleness, give our energy into space. Decisively taking the phone away, I enticed the boy into games. As a result, we built a castle, drew a hedgehog, and began to learn the alphabet. Mark was so inspired that he demanded repetition of letters throughout the day, we went through many books in my library. I was happy to note that everything was not lost yet - how great it was that I started the experiment.

Tuesday

Morning, a Cup of coffee and... the habit of floundering on Facebook had to be canceled. I got lost. I love these five minutes of aimless crawling on the Internet. Many years ago, as a teenager, I drank coffee and read books in the morning. This was my favorite time of the day. I returned to reading an abandoned book by Nigel Latta (psychologist) and had incredible pleasure. I had been kicking myself for a month for reading a book too slowly, but now it became obvious where I was wasting my time. A long and tedious day lay ahead. It's easy to go offline when you're busy at work or walking in the park with your child. And when your child is sick, how do you spend that day at home?

After tormenting my son with procedures, I turned on the TV. I woke up four hours later after watching three movies of average quality. So clear your mind. One piece of garbage was replaced by another, the brain became foggy, and no enlightenment was observed.

Self-esteem slid down the scale, clearly demonstrating to me, a pathetic individual, the purposelessness of my existence. We don't notice how we steal time from ourselves. Priceless seconds disappear into space, leaving inside only a visual collection of television and network trash. Swallowing it, we do not notice how real life leaves. But stupidity and laziness remain.

I also didn’t want to teach my son to watch TV. We started playing games and learning the alphabet again. I read four fairy tales and drew ten hedgehogs. Tuesday turned out to be harder than Monday. For some reason, visiting a social page ten times is easier than coming up with an offline activity. On the Internet, you find yourself in a whole world filled with events, only strangers. It’s difficult to create your own in reality. The walls pressed down on me, and the thought flashed treacherously that it was not a crime to pirate a good movie. It was decided to call my grandmother to help. I remember how our house was always filled with guests. Rock music was playing, my mother’s friends were playing preference, and I sat next to her and tried to understand the rules of the game. No one was bored; on the contrary, the adults always had something to discuss and dance about.

At the end of the day, we baked pancakes, turned on the radio (it was then that I felt sorry for the discarded record player and record collection), danced and had a children's car race. The feeling of heaviness gradually went away, my head was clear. I already liked that I lived without the web, I liked the understanding of how much I was mired in the network without creating a living reality. Now I had to think and decide for myself, and not ask Google. Seeing people live, not in a flashing avatar of a social page.

Wednesday

I was full of optimism. Today we could go for a walk. Keeping yourself in control while locked within four walls is much more difficult. I grab my phone to capture the special moment. I want to send a photo via Viber to my loved ones. Stop. Sending photos does not liquefy the brain, but since I have decided to enter the Stone Age, I will follow this rule to the end. Looking around, I notice a crowd of young people with a monopod. With idiotic laughter they take pictures of themselves against the background of trees. It's hard to understand the selfie trend. Why take a photo of yourself with your chin up and your eyes bulging when there are people around you who you can kindly ask to click you as a souvenir?

If you are in the desert, and there is not even a camel nearby that can take a photo of you against the background of the sunset, then it’s a different matter - a selfie will save you. But what kind of sunset am I talking about when people take photos in bathroom mirrors?

Social networks have revealed to the world narcissists who believe that everyone around them is really interested in what they eat, what they defecate, and what they are wearing today. A daily ritual is browsing Instagram and counting likes. They get up with the phone, go to bed with the phone in their hands. It’s worse when, under the influence of the general fashion for declarativeness, a person, in principle, endowed with intelligence, changes. Just yesterday you were discussing Dostoevsky with him, and today you are complaining about the lack of likes on your photo.

While walking, I noticed that the mothers were divided into two groups. Some run around with children, chasing a ball and blowing soap bubbles. The latter look at the child with one eye and at the phone with the other. They shout: “Katya, don’t interfere, Slava, be careful, Petya, don’t touch the toy, it’s someone else’s” - and they move their finger across the android screen. Their children pester them, pull their T-shirts, run up the stairs, and try in every possible way to attract their mother’s attention. But, alas, life in a box is much more interesting than your own children. I noticed that I stopped looking at my phone all week and sometimes I forget where I put it. Call me and I’ll find you.

Thursday

On the fourth day of offline mode, an acute feeling of silence came over me. In a strange way, the world is divided into reality and virtuality. Social pages make you connected to your friends from your feed. The era of ostentation allows you to literally know what people think, what they do, eat, where they go, where they are. Excessive frankness of private life no longer bothers anyone; everyone wants to be popular, in the thick of events and communication. Pointless polls, what to name a dog, what wallpaper to choose for the bedroom, commenting on articles - all this, apparently, makes life more fulfilling than it is in reality. Happy people engaged in business rarely appear on social networks, if they have any at all.

The Internet has given humanity a deceptive sense of necessity. While you are online, the world is visible. Everyone is actively adding friends, sharing news, liking photos. Life on the Internet is summed up by one big fat denominator - “like”.

In fact, this is nothing more than an ephemeral zilch, a ghostly activity that does not carry any real power. We post articles about abandoned animals, about orphans - in reality, other people deliver things to boarding schools, take in abandoned dogs and cats. We share nostalgic articles with our friends about the forgotten games of our childhood - others actually go out with their children and play these same games.

Society is saddened by the fact that the younger generation is on their phones. A friend shared a story about how she organized a birthday party for her schoolgirl daughter. After the treat, the children went to the children's room, from where, in the end, not a sound was heard. Looking into the room, the parents saw that the guys were sitting quietly, burying their heads in their mobile phones.

You can be indignant at children’s addiction to the Internet as much as you want, but adults are a shining example of this lifestyle. Reality provides an incredible amount of entertainment and activities, you just need to look away from the TV and laptop. “Odnoklassniki” will not give you the emotions that a new day spent with a child and with friends outside of the usual environment will give. Thursday turned out to be quite eventful for me. Played hide and seek with my son.

Friday

The only thing that bothered me on Friday was not knowing the weather forecast. I had to learn about the reality of what was happening outside the walls of the house by sticking my head out the window. I've never made a mistake. I had to go on business. I was stuck at the bus stop for a long time: after all, using the app with the transport schedule is prohibited. Suddenly a man turned to me and asked me something about the metro in English. This is where I got caught. The fact is that at school and at university I studied French, I tried to master English at the Elementary level, and then unsuccessfully. Alas, I am not a polyglot. When a foreigner approached me, the first thought was, of course: Google translator! Now everything will be okay. And I don’t know whether to despise myself or admire my fortitude, but I decided that I would be faithful to the experiment to the end. Smiling dazzlingly, she tried to explain to the man where the metro was. Naturally, he did not understand me at all. With a resigned sigh, I shoved him into a trolleybus to take him to the metro. The foreigner, pressed to the door by the powerful mass of the Belarusian people, decided to continue the acquaintance. He told me that he came from America, he likes Minsk, and we have a lot of people (that’s what I understood). Introduced himself as Michael. I babbled “buzz” and smiled sweetly. Google translator would have saved me from this shame, I thought sadly. Despite the language barrier, I showed Michael the way. When you find yourself in such situations, you understand that the Internet is intended not only to entertain the idle crowd, but, above all, to help.

Saturday Sunday

Over the weekend I had to interrupt my experiment and use the services of applications. I turned on Wi-Fi on my mobile phone, and the phone immediately began to ring heart-rendingly with Viber, message, mail, and Facebook signals. To be honest, it became unusually loud. Friends wrote, relatives demanded photographs of their grandson. It’s not clear: how did everyone live without a network before, and why did we stop calling?

The funny thing is that the Internet has alienated people from each other. It would seem that no, on the contrary, it gave a chance to communicate with those who live abroad, the opportunity to write to friends without being distracted from work when there is no way to call. An excess of opportunities for communication creates a deficit of desire, which is ultimately what is observed. If before a friend called you every year from anywhere in the world, and you tried to cram all the hot news into a five-minute conversation, now the maximum is a line in the messenger, saying, how are you? All of the above has simplified communication between people, but at the same time made it primitive and, excuse the pathos, insensitive. As a full-blown conservative, I am convinced that nothing in the world can replace the warmth of human communication.

Having lived these insignificant five days without the Internet, I felt a taste of reality - you stop checking Google every second and think with your own mind. Many will think that stupidity on the Internet does not concern them, but I assure you: habit is an invisible thing, and, like a tumor, it grows. We are all hostages of the network system. And it turns out that a beautiful sunset is not the view from the window, but someone’s photo posted on a social page.

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The Internet, also known as the World Wide Web, has been used globally for only a quarter of a century. It is difficult to imagine another invention that, in such a short period of time, could change all of humanity so much. It seems that very little time has passed, and the current generation has difficulty understanding how the previous generation managed without a global telecommunications network.

Some compare the Internet to smoking, alcoholism, or even drug addiction.

Is it possible to live without the World Wide Web?

It is difficult to give a specific answer to such a general question.
Let's ask ourselves what it means to us. To begin with, let’s divide people into those who work and relax on the Internet. In modern society, it is becoming more and more difficult every day to find a job that is independent of the Internet. It is necessary to order a ticket to the boss, predict the rise or fall of shares, find instructions for the device, get legal advice and thousands of other tasks that are solved every minute and every second. Whether a person works directly on the Internet, or simply posts a job search form there, this is no longer so important. The important fact is that a person who knows how to use the Internet will receive a better place, a higher salary and more social guarantees than the same candidate without Internet skills.

Any of us wants to live better, so do we have the right to refuse such a tool as the Internet?

For most of us, there is only one answer: no, we don’t. People who use the Internet for recreation also cannot be generalized. By the way, for those who want to go out into the world, you can connect to the Internet in Tyumen from the best provider that provides quality services. On the one hand, the incredibly developed online entertainment industry allows people to feel the taste of victory, experience a rush of adrenaline, and diversify the drab work days, which gives psychological relief to the average person, protects the psyche and prevents nervous breakdowns. It’s good when a person has the opportunity to let off steam after a bad day at work, and not take out negative emotions on loved ones. On the other hand, we see people who transfer their lives to social networks, blogs, diaries, losing interest in events outside the web, and go to MMORPGs more often than they go outside. This situation is comparable to alcohol consumption in our country: some people drink for relaxation, without losing a sense of proportion, while others are forced to undergo treatment for addiction.

The most important aspect is that the Internet helps people stay connected. A sailor talking to his children during a voyage of six thousand, or a group of schoolchildren planning to go to the cinema next weekend - these and many other real-life events could not take place without such a convenient and accessible way of communication. An incredible number of projects on the Internet gather thousands of workers or enthusiasts who have never met anywhere before. An earthquake in Latin America, a tsunami in Japan, starving children in Africa - one charitable project on the network can sometimes bring more benefits than entire charitable missions located at the point of a natural disaster. There is only one conclusion: since humanity does not have an alternative resource with similar functionality, it will not be possible to refuse to use it.

The entire history of mankind revolves around the process of searching for a better place in the sun, and the World Wide Web has become both a new tool in this struggle and an element of natural selection for those who cannot cope with it.

So is it possible to live without the Internet? Of course you can, look at the older generation, at workers in those professions who do not have access to communication with the outside world for days or months, at people living in regions with little network coverage.

Will this question be relevant for the new generation, which does not know a world without the Internet?

It is still difficult to answer this question, because only one fact is clear: the Internet network has turned the world upside down in just 25 years and has every chance of doing it again over the next quarter century.

With the widespread and ever-growing use of the Internet, it is very difficult to imagine everyday life without it. However, the World Wide Web, which appeared relatively recently, is not something immutable. Access to it may be lost for various reasons for several hours or days.

What threatens the Internet

The Internet firmly entered the life of mankind more than 20 years ago. But then - for example, in 1995 - less than 1% of people had access to it. As the BBC notes, the network was a curiosity, used mainly in the West.

Now more than 3.5 billion people have the Internet, and this number is increasing by ten people every second. According to a Pew Research poll, one in five Americans now uses the Internet “almost constantly”; 73% go online daily. According to the UK Office for National Statistics, the figures are similar in this country. In 2016, almost 90% of British adults surveyed said they had used the internet in the previous three months.

“People take the Internet for granted, but they don’t realize the extent to which we have allowed it to permeate every corner of our lives,” says William Dutton of Michigan State University, author of Society and the Internet. “They don’t even they think about what it’s like to live without the Internet.”

The BBC describes several scenarios in which a single country or the entire world will be left without the Internet. For example, hackers can launch malware into the network that stops communications. Closing DNS servers, these Internet address books, can seriously disrupt the operation of the network, as a result of which sites will not load. The failure of Internet cables laid along the bottom of the oceans will lead to the fact that the continents will lose Internet communications between themselves. Although these cables are not easy for attackers to reach, they are sometimes damaged by pure accident.

Additionally, some governments have a so-called "kill switch" that can shut down the internet in an entire country. It was used by Egyptian authorities during the Arab Spring in 2011 to make it difficult to coordinate protests. Türkiye and Iran are shutting down the network during large-scale protests. According to some reports, China also has this opportunity. Even American senators in 2011 proposed creating such a system to protect the United States from cyber attacks.

But the most devastating blow may come from space. A powerful solar storm is quite capable of knocking out satellites, power grids and computer systems.

“What bombs and terrorism cannot do, a solar flare can do in literally seconds,” said Stanford University neuroscientist David Eagleman, author of Why the Web Matters.

However, as Scott Borg, a representative of the US Cyber ​​Consequences Unit, which assesses and analyzes the consequences of potential cyber attacks, said, in most cases the outages will not be long-lasting. “There is a whole army of people who are always ready to fix everything. Providers have employees and an action plan in case someone finds a network vulnerability,” he said.

What benefit can failure bring?

Users are so accustomed to the fact that the Internet is always at hand that even a short-term disconnection will not remain without consequences. However, they may not turn out to be what you would expect.

For example, for the economy, the loss of the global network for several days will not necessarily be catastrophic. This is evidenced by research conducted by the US Cyber ​​Consequences Unit in 2008, commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security. A review of 20 US companies said to be most affected by internet outages found that the financial impact of the outages was very limited.

Studies have shown that if there is no access to the Internet for several days, people are simply late in completing a certain amount of work.

“People were doing all the same work that they would have done with the Internet working, but they were just two or three days late,” Scott Borg said.

And in some cases, the absence of the Internet even improves productivity, he noted. Thus, during one of the experiments, specialists from the US Cyber ​​Consequences Unit checked what company employees would do if they did not have the Internet for more than four hours. Instead of being idle, employees started doing things that they usually put off until later. As a result, labor efficiency has increased.

“We jokingly suggested that if every company turned off their computers for at least a few hours a month and forced them to do something they had been putting off, it would greatly improve productivity,” says Scott Borg. it would have the same effect on the economy as a whole.”

How not to lose friends without the Internet

But the psychological consequences of shutting down the Internet - such as feelings of loneliness and anxiety - will be noticeable everywhere.

“The Internet, for the most part, was created for one purpose: to enable us to communicate with each other,” says Stanford University professor Jeff Hancock.

We are used to the fact that we can contact anyone, anywhere, anytime. “The inability to do this will create a sense of concern,” Mr. Hancock said. Scott Borg agrees: “When I realize that I forgot my smartphone at home, I feel like I’m naked. I suddenly start thinking: “Am I going there? What if my car breaks down, can I ask someone for a phone number so I can call for technical assistance?”

“There is an assumption that people will become more social and see friends and family more often if they do not have the Internet. But I think it’s wrong,” William Dutton shared his opinion. “Most people who use the Internet are actually more sociable than those who don’t use it.” Stine Lomborg from the University of Copenhagen agrees with this. “If we don't have smartphones, that doesn't mean we'll start talking to strangers at the bus stop, not at all,” she said.

Lack of connection can make people more sociable in specific situations. For example, when you need to get employees to talk to each other rather than exchange emails, but the overall effect will be disappointing.

“The world, of course, will not fall apart if we are left without the Internet for one day,” Ms. Lomborg is sure. “But for most people, even this day will be a terrible experience.”

According to Jeff Hancock, the loss of the Internet may make people realize its full importance, but once the Internet is re-emerged, we will soon begin to take it for granted again. “I would like to say that shutting down the Internet will lead to a shift in our thinking, but I don’t think it will,” he said.

Alena Miklashevskaya

» on your favorite Lifehacker. The topic raised in this article has always seemed very relevant to me. What is it like to go on an “Internet diet,” especially for me, a person whose life is tightly connected with gadgets? After all, my job requires me to use almost 3 different devices on different operating systems (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) at the same time. Either manufacturers send new products for testing in the form of new smartphones, then, following the script, you have to test various services and new programs.

Agree, it’s one thing to restrict access to a TV or the Internet for an ordinary user. It’s another matter to “tie” a person who cannot imagine his working day without a smartphone. Have you ever wondered how many times a day you unlock your smartphone screen just out of habit? It seems like there is a specific task to check your email or look at your calendar, but then suddenly a push notification arrives, someone posted a new photo on Instagram, and on Twitter there are already 30 unread messages in the last hour. And away we go... You’ve even forgotten why you took your smartphone out of your pocket.

Sound familiar? Congratulations, you have adicophonia. This term refers to a painful dependence on the phone and the fear of being cut off from the world. Have you ever assessed the degree of addiction to your smartphone? But I became incredibly curious about what feelings I would experience for 7 days if I was deprived of my workhorse iPhone 5 and the Internet in general. Especially when the guys from our revolverlab.com team bet that I could last a maximum of 2 days in this mode. But I was sure that this story would have at least two interesting endings. Of course, some work aspects of my daily life will suffer greatly, but the positive aspects are bound to emerge.

And I decided to go for this experiment. But, before starting the story about the 7-day adventure, I want to note what exactly a smartphone is for me, and what functions and services I use during the working day.

So, the most important functions and services that I use on my iPhone:

1. Evernote + Notes. It’s scary to think, but the Evernote app and standard notes on the iPhone are almost a complete mirror of my daily life. Everything is recorded there: names of people, ideas, scenarios for device reviews, all the news that I saw or read. Even phone numbers are the first thing I write down in Evernote. There are times when I am very busy, and at this time 2-3 people communicate with me at the same time. To make sure I don't miss any details, I turn on Evernote and take an audio note. Then I listen to everything in splendid isolation. And I recommend it to you - it’s very convenient.

2. Viber+WhatsApp+Skype. With these programs I forgot what phone calls and SMS are. 99% of my social circle use these instant messengers, all that remains is to transfer my parents, and the SIM card in my smartphone will be solely responsible for the mobile Internet. The savings on communication per month are simply incredible: my tariff plan is $10 per month, which is exactly how much the Internet costs me - about 2,000 messages (Viber+) and about 30 hours of calls (+Skype).

3. Yandex. Maps + 2gis + Yandex. Navigator– these programs start immediately as soon as I get behind the wheel of the car. And this happens 2 times a day - in the morning when I go to work and in the evening when returning from work.

4. Calendar+Mail+Camera. 3 native iPhone features that I wouldn’t trade for anything. The calendar in iOS is the best, the Mail client on iOS is much more convenient for me than the native Gmail client on Android. I love the iPhone camera for its simplicity. There is nothing superfluous here, it has one function - to shoot. It is out of love for this minimalism that I consider Apple devices to be my main work gadgets. I take photos quite often, about 100 photos a day. iPhoneography is one of my constant hobbies.

5. Twitter+Instagram and other social networks. Twitter and Instagram in my application are working tools. It is on these social networks that I manage to find contacts of people I am interested in and establish connections with them. Moreover, by subscribing to the right sources, I learn about all the news that affects my interests. What I read about on Twitter in the morning, I only come across in the news a day later. Now regarding VK and Facebook. I have public pages on these social networks, but I use them very rarely. I would have removed myself from both a long time ago, but due to my work I can’t afford it, there’s so much that’s tied up in them.

I also listen to a ton of podcasts on my iPhone that I subscribe to on iTunes, and music is no exception.

Perhaps it's time to finish the program part. There are many more apps and cloud services that make my day easier (and maybe even cluttered), but I won't list them all. Above I described those functions that I definitely cannot refuse.

Before starting a new work week without a smartphone and the Internet, I still had to stay connected. Moreover, you also need to record any events. So I armed myself with a $25 Nokia 1280 phone, a pen and a notepad... and began a lifelong journey, or rather 7 days.

Day 1.

Adaptation on the first day is perhaps the most difficult period during the entire 7 days of giving up “beautiful”. I’ll be honest, the first thing I did when I got out of bed in the morning was pick up my smartphone and only then go to the bathroom. It's not that I wanted to know anything urgent, but with a smartphone in my hand I felt kind of safe...

And here it is - the first morning without a smartphone... This is a terrible feeling when it seems to you that you have no control over the situation at all. Complete confusion and a feeling as if you were in an unfamiliar place for the first time. Do you know what's really happening? Later you will realize that before this you simply did not notice a huge number of things around you.

Today is the first day that I got myself out of a rut. And due to the lack of a smartphone, when leaving for work, I forgot to take my driver’s license, keys to the office-studio revolverlab.com and a wallet with money and credit cards. But the most amazing thing is that the whole working day I was haunted by the feeling that I forgot my smartphone! I only found out about the other’s absence upon arriving home. The first day is chaos and chaos: every half hour the hand reflexively feels for the smartphone in the pocket, and the brain sends impulses “check your email, what’s on Twitter? .., someone is probably writing on Viber?” At the end of the working day, I realized that I couldn’t continue like this, I needed to take action and keep myself busy with something. Preferably useful.

Day 2.

Morning of the second day. I remember with horror that I forgot to charge my phone. I take the Nokia 1280 out of my backpack and am surprised to understand that the battery indicator is dividing, indicating that it can’t be charged for another 6 days! Incredible feeling :)

So, it’s 6 am, I have to go to work at 10. These 4 hours were enough for me to take a bath, have breakfast, sort out letters in the mail, read news on Flipboard, Twitter and Instagram. Now I have plenty of time, and I can finally start my morning jogging! So I did. It was decided that every day of mine would start this way. You feel better, and during intense runs you don’t even have to think about social networks, mail and other Internet processes.

Arriving at work, I took a pen and notepad. I haven't written anything on paper for a long time. After the 3rd sentence he twists his arm, but no, he twists his whole body up to his heels. But still there is something real about it! A similar feeling comes from riding a bicycle, especially if your last ride was 10 years ago. Now, when I need to write down a phone number, choosing between a Nokia push-button or a notepad, I will choose the notepad. Typing anything on a phone of this form factor is a real punishment. Except for dialing the number itself.

Now it's worth talking about communication. Since I gave more preference to messages and letters, this option is no longer available on my new “disposable” phone. You have to make phone calls. Selecting the right tariff plan from all operators or buying several SIM cards is not comme il faut. I take the most optimal tariff plan. Overall, in just 1 day I spent $22 – this is the reality of modern operators and what many people face. How I miss my instant messengers... Meanwhile, in the Revolverlab office, I keep hearing the familiar sounds of incoming Skype and Whatsapp messages.

In the evening of the same day, I remembered that I had a book by James Rollins that had not been read for a long time, gathering dust on my shelf. I decide that the most suitable period in my life for reading has come. 4 hours flew by in a flash. I fell asleep like a baby. Now I have added one more thing to my circle of hobbies. Under no circumstances should you pick up your smartphone before going to bed; it’s better to read an interesting book.

Day 3.

Another working day. A lot of filming and writing scripts for the Revolverlab Youtube channel. I write all texts on A4 paper (and the notes for this article are no exception). Now it’s clear to me - I’ve become less distracted when performing certain tasks. As it turned out, the most important distracting factor was the smartphone, and not the people who surround me and are trying to tell me something.

But it turns out that you need to listen to people more often and come into contact with them: everyday tasks are completed faster and more efficiently, and a lot of new ideas come to mind. By the way, I found a loophole and a little lifehack for myself :) The fact is that all my colleagues at revolverlab.com have Twitter and Instagram, so if you need to find out something urgently or write a letter, you can just ask them to view them and briefly form to state everything I need. It is very interesting to observe from the outside people who, at the first opportunity they get, immerse themselves in the screens of their gadgets. You begin to understand that you were the same, although few people will see it...

If you have any inhibitions, don't worry... they won't be noticed. Most people today are busy with completely different things, they don’t watch what doesn’t concern them, they can only watch you online. The real world is slowly opening up, so let’s begin to take advantage of the moment: this is where real relaxation is, and if you find like-minded people, it’s absolutely wonderful.

Day 4.

TV. How many rumors and criticism are pouring towards the “zombie box”. But if you are a child of the Internet, social networks and gadgets, TV is not scary for you. I tried to watch it during a free day and was very surprised. Television is transforming into the Internet. Videos from Youtube fill humor channels, although one can say differently - the Internet is rapidly moving towards television, apparently TV budgets are still taking their toll...

Information gets to television with a catastrophic delay, unlike the World Wide Web. But don’t rejoice, fellow Internet users. Many of you are very proud of the fact that you don’t watch TV, but you forget that you can’t be pulled away from Facebook or VKontakte by the ears, or from the screen of a tablet or smartphone. In fact, the difference is not big. I was gone for a long time, the TV was turned off and I returned to entertaining reading. I even came up with a new hobby: I got myself a free bookshelf, and now on this shelf I will put only those books that I have read from beginning to end.

Last 3 days (Fri, Sat, Sun).

Now I don’t feel any discomfort at all from the lack of Internet and smartphone. On the one hand, I'm curious how much I missed in these 5 days. On the other hand, nothing terrible happened: the workflow was not disrupted, and the advantages were obvious. And most importantly, this week helped me realize how to move on, how to distinguish between my free time and the time that I will devote to gadgets in the future. Refusing modern technologies and moving against progress is stupid. Gadgets really help us every day, the main thing is not to abuse them.

Now I will describe what actions I took on the first day after the 7-day “cleansing” and rethinking:

1. I turned off push notifications on my smartphone. Push is not a convenience, it is an evil created by companies to compete for our attention. If I need to check any events, I am able to do it myself and at the moment when I consider it necessary to do it. And by the way, the battery life of your smartphone will increase significantly.
2. Checking email: 2 times a day, only during business hours. Before and after work - no mail!
3. Reading news once a day.
4. Checking Twitter and Instagram feeds 2 times a day, I don’t see the point anymore. Please, readers, count how many times a day you go to Twitter or Instagram? And how often were these actions justified?
5. But I won’t give up the camera. Now I have a lot more free time, and I can take a lot of great shots and events that surround me.

And now the facts. What happened during the week of my absence:

1. Mail. The number of missed letters is 328. Of these, not a single letter of “first” importance.

2. Number of missed Viber+WhatsApp+Skype messages. Considering that I warned all the people important to me about my online absence, in total I received 67 messages and 7 missed calls. It’s okay, before there were no telephones at all, and somehow people lived. If someone is openly unhappy that they can’t call or reach you, don’t pay attention. Not answering the phone is your right.

3. The number of missed posts on Twitter is 2890. I didn’t even bother to re-read it.

4. Instagram. For the whole week, there were 2 worthy pictures. People mostly take pictures of kittens, flowers and food. Oh yes, also yourself near the mirror. In 7 days I saw much more interesting things. And people, and nature, and other delights of offline life.

5. The number of written pages in the notebook is 48! And, to be honest, it's cool. You touch the pages, and some special trail of memories from this unusual period of time flies through your head. Now I will write on paper more often!

6. Amount of money spent on phone calls. I had to make a lot of calls over 7 days, and the total amount spent on calls was about $130. With a smartphone, this money would certainly last me more than six months. Here's proof of how modern technology helps you save on communication.

Now I exercise more often, read more books, spend much more time with my family and devote more time to face-to-face communication. I completely forgot, my bookshelf has been replenished with 3 more books. I hope this number will increase with enviable consistency. =)

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My name is Polina, and I am an infoholic. I made these conclusions after I cut off the virtual threads connecting me with the world for a week. Most of my life is connected to the World Wide Web: there I work, communicate, learn new things, have fun, and shop. For 7 days I checked how much time I would spend on familiar things and whether I could fully live outside the information flow.

What I use on the Internet and what I especially missed

1.WhatsApp. Communication here goes on almost continuously. In addition to regular correspondence, I chat with friends, colleagues, and relatives. And in order not to pay for communication, I also make calls here.

2. Google Maps + Yandex. Navigator". I turn it on as soon as I get behind the wheel of the car. Helps you not to stress while driving, avoid traffic jams and enjoy the road.

3. Weather. I live in St. Petersburg, which is famous for its changeable weather, so I plan my day based on the information that the application shows. You need to have time to take your child for a walk before it starts to rain.

4. Facebook + Instagram + VK. I use them more often for work - on these social networks I manage to find contacts of people I’m interested in and establish connections with them, catch a wave of inspiration and find out what’s trending now: what they laugh at, what they admire, what they’re surprised at.

5. Banking applications. Pay bills, purchases, transfer money - it's all here.

6. Google Mail. I use it infrequently and only for work. I am not interested in mailing lists or spam.

7.Search engines Google + Safari. I have a small child and I Google everything. This “mom” habit that quickly developed in me cannot be eradicated.

8. YouTube. Watch the video. And watch the video again. Well, you understand.

So, the start of the experiment is announced.

Day 1. Negation

With a slight movement of the hand, the pasta turns into a magnificent paste. It turned out that there was plenty of time to prepare food, so I complained in vain.

• Today I started my work day earlier and without social networks. I quickly compiled an interview, wrote down the ideas for future articles that were generated in my head - usually I sent them to editors electronically, but now I marked them in a notepad. I haven't written anything on paper for a long time. The hand gets tired quickly, but there is something alive and real in the contact of pen and paper. The main thing is that by the time the network appears, the ideas are not outdated.

• So far, my dog ​​is the most pleased with the experiment - our walks have become longer. I even found the strength to run with him in the park.

“When is it time to go home?” - one can read in the eyes of the dog, who realized that instead of the required 20 minutes he had been walking for an hour.

• I try to be positive, but I'm annoyed by the sight of people who are immersed in their gadgets. I understand: this is because I’m not allowed to. I tried to drive around the city without a navigator, but ended up stuck in all the traffic jams and had difficulty getting home.

I didn’t know how to get around the traffic jams, because usually the navigator leads the way. It is very tiring to follow the signs along the way so as not to drive under a “brick”.

Day 3. Bargain

• The habit of grabbing my phone in the morning was replaced with “morning pages”. This is a famous written meditation created by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way. You need to take 3 sheets of paper and write down everything that comes to your mind, any thoughts. This text does not need to be re-read and analyzed. This practice helps to clear your head and release emotions, to understand yourself better.

Gratitude, negativity, memories - I still haven’t figured out what and why I wrote down. The main rule of “morning pages” is not to analyze.

• I'm holding on with all my strength. Once again I stop myself when trying to check messengers. I just want to know who wrote to me and what. I start bargaining with my conscience: “Well, no one will know,” “I’m just here for a minute, maybe there’s something urgent,” and “Actually, the work is worth it, have a conscience, write to your colleagues.” I realize that a moment of weakness will deprive the experiment of its meaning, and will add to dissatisfaction with myself.
• Previously, while walking with my child in the park, I watched videos on YouTube and corresponded with friends. I decided that the lack of Internet was a good reason to look for a partner with similar interests, and invited my friend to meet. In addition to good company, I received toys for the child as a gift. Still, “face-to-face” meetings are very pleasant. Dressed inappropriately for the weather. When I left the house, it was warm, but in the evening it started to rain and a strong wind blew. If I had known this (and I would have known if I had checked it in advance in the app), I would have dressed warmer and taken an umbrella. So life is very unpredictable if your smartphone has not been updated for the 3rd day.

Day 4. Depression

• When you're unplugged, a lot of time is wasted on things that you could do in a couple of minutes. For example, I needed to buy tickets for a concert, and I went to the theater box office. To the box office! How long has it been since you did something stupid like that? In normal life, I would simply pay for the tickets with a bank card and forget about them until the concert. By the way, I haven’t held a paper ticket in my hands for a long time. Maybe even never. After a tiring journey to buy tickets, I found receipts for utility bills in my mailbox. I imagined that I would go to the bank to pay for them, and I was truly depressed.

I may not have any cash in my wallet for weeks. I pay for most goods and services online.

This is what the containers from the charity store “Spasibo!” look like. As they are filled, they are unloaded and the items are taken to the sorting center.

• I have already come to terms with reality and found a lot of things to do offline. And then, like a bolt from the blue, I learned from my husband that he wanted to break our agreement to watch “Game of Thrones” only together and turn on a new episode, because I no longer had the strength to wait for the end of my experiment. I urgently leave the child with my grandmother and, so as not to be tempted, go to the gym. She tightly closed the door to the room where her husband was enjoying watching. The sounds of the beginning episode haunted me while I was putting on my shoes in the hallway. After finishing the workout, I was proud of myself.

The day I got the most out of my stretching.

Day 6. Renaissance

• The hardest thing is not to Google. Since I have a small child, I google everything, his every sneeze. And soon he will have to get another vaccination. It would be nice to know more about it. I was glad that now the Internet is not at hand and I cannot go to the forum and start getting information. As they say, any disease is fatal if you Google it correctly. And vaccination even more so.
• Tonight Brain Slaughter is a mind game where many teams compete. Participants are gathered in some cafe, and the presenter asks questions. A minute to think - and the answer sheets are sent to the judges. The team that gives the most correct answers becomes the winner of the evening. Basic rule: no phones allowed. Although our team finished 17th out of 40, it was a lot of fun! Was I missing Google? Certainly! I'm glad that everyone missed him there.

• I feel changes in myself: I take pictures and don’t ask to take a lot of shots to choose the best one for social networks. In general, since Photoshopped photographs of happy faces stopped endlessly flashing before my eyes, I began to like my life, figure and the reflection of my bare face in the mirror more. There are a few hours left of the experiment and I will be able to enable “cellular data” on my smartphone. I was looking forward to this so much, but now I’m even a little sad, because I just learned again to smile at people when meeting their eyes.

Life after the experiment

As a result, I had more time for myself: I went to the gym 3 times instead of 2, read one book, sorted out the closet and got rid of unnecessary things, got out of town, wrote 67 pages in a notebook, began to communicate with people in person, and for what it’s worth only one intellectual game - emotions go wild there. The husband is happy with the varied menu, the dog is happy with long walks.

These are the changes this experience brought to my life:

• I learned to concentrate on the present moment.
• I stopped considering myself obligated to answer everyone at once.
• I began to value my own and other people’s time more.
• I began to listen to my feelings and have my own opinion.
• Gadgets make our lives easier, the main thing is not to abuse them.
• In my case, there is life without the Internet, but work is unlikely.
• The plan is to completely drop out of virtual reality once a week. Such a break fills you with energy and allows you to accomplish even more.