At home I depend on mobile internet. Remember, I live on a boat. And on this particular boat my options are limited. There’s not phone line, so there can’t be internet. A dongle it is then (it’s what British people call the USB stick for mobile internet).
I chose the 5GB option, which is the cheapest usage/price option I could get and seemed to suit my needs just fine. Since I spend a lot of time in cafés on the weekend, where I usually get internet free with my latte, I can manage.
But every so often I misjudge my usage and go over the limit, which then cuts me off from the internet. Needless to say I’m not exactly a fan.
I’m not an internet junkie, but I do rely on it as a resource. It’s a great for doing research, especially since I’m nowhere near a library either.
It’s also quite useful when I forgot to email my mother during my lunch break when I told her that I would. Now she’ll be wondering why I’m not touching base with her and I end up feeling guilty.
So, yes, I love my internet. I can live without it, but I don’t want to. If ever our technology fails us and we end up in a scenario like the TV show Revolution or perhaps something along the lines of Terminator, I’m sure I’d adapt, because I’d have a lot more time on my hands all of a sudden (which I would not be sorry about), but I’d miss it.
As it is, I now do have a lot of time that I don’t spend browsing the interweb and I’m dividing it between writing and watching an episode or two of one of my shows as a reward in between.
That has two advantages: I get a lot more writing in than usual. And I get to catch up on those shows I usually skip in favour of writing. Strange how things work out sometimes.
I’m an advocate of unplugging, I’ve written on that before. But I don’t do it as much as I should. I had a chance to unplug over the weekend, which I spent mostly in the Black Forest and in Switzerland (I had a four-day weekend, which is awesome) with my brother and some friends and instead of looking at some screen all day, or a good chunk of it, I was out hiking, sightseeing, enjoying mother nature and having good conversations away from all that technology that usually distracts us. At no point was even a TV set on.
I felt more relaxed coming home (admittedly even reluctant to be back in London) and got a tanned and fresh look, because that’s what happens when you’re not inside all weekend and it’s Spring.
I ate a lot of healthy food as well.
I didn’t get to write a lot. But as soon as I was on my way home, I pulled out my tablet and started on it, because I felt recharged and ready. I’ve written quite a bit the day before yesterday and yesterday I’ve written four blogs, though only two were posted. Overall I’m at more than 2000 thousand words and that is productive indeed when you’re also working full time.
All I wanted to say when I started writing this was this: go offline, you’ll write more. Q.E.D. as mathematicians put it. It doesn’t matter if your offline jaunt is voluntary or involuntary, the result is the same. You’ll write much more than you ever thought possible.
There’s something to be said for an analogue office.
2clouds 