5 Unexpected Challenges of Living Without Internet
I’m often asked what the challenges of living without internet in the Web 2.0 era might be. Although this site is intended primarily as a travel album, here are 5 typical, day-to-day challenges of a life without internet, Instagram, and Facebook:
I’m often asked what the challenges of living without internet in the Web 2.0 era might be. Although this site is intended primarily as a travel album, here are 5 typical, day-to-day challenges of a life without internet, Instagram, and Facebook:
1/ Getting Dressed in the Morning
Peering out a 10th-floor window is a surprisingly ineffective way of determining the day’s weather forecast. Sunny, clear skies? That’s no guarantee of warm weather. Nor does it prepare you for the surprise thunderstorm that hits when you leave class in the afternoon.
(Solution: Check the forecast at the library a week in advance. It occasionally helps.)
Peering out a 10th-floor window is a surprisingly ineffective way of determining the day’s weather forecast. Sunny, clear skies? That’s no guarantee of warm weather. Nor does it prepare you for the surprise thunderstorm that hits when you leave class in the afternoon.
(Solution: Check the forecast at the library a week in advance. It occasionally helps.)
2/ Talking
Communication with my friends and family— most of whom live in Alberta— can only be done via cell phone. And only after 6pm or on weekends.
(Solution: I suppose I’m lucky— most of my closest friends either already have long-distance phone plans, or subscribed to new ones after I began my experiment. Certain people also send me letter-mail. Which is more fun to open than e-mail.)
Communication with my friends and family— most of whom live in Alberta— can only be done via cell phone. And only after 6pm or on weekends.
(Solution: I suppose I’m lucky— most of my closest friends either already have long-distance phone plans, or subscribed to new ones after I began my experiment. Certain people also send me letter-mail. Which is more fun to open than e-mail.)
3/ Making Food
Pictured: Jenni and our deviled eggs project.
Anyone who thinks cookbooks are obsolete has never tried living without internet. Want to bake brownies for an event on Saturday? Better find a recipe the week before, and try it out first— unlike alltherecipes.com, there are no user reviews to rely on when it comes to analog recipes. Missing an ingredient? You’ll have to tackle that food-chemistry experiment on your own, because there’s no convenient way to simply google the correct substitutions.
Pictured: Jenni and our deviled eggs project.
Anyone who thinks cookbooks are obsolete has never tried living without internet. Want to bake brownies for an event on Saturday? Better find a recipe the week before, and try it out first— unlike alltherecipes.com, there are no user reviews to rely on when it comes to analog recipes. Missing an ingredient? You’ll have to tackle that food-chemistry experiment on your own, because there’s no convenient way to simply google the correct substitutions.
4/ Looking up Unclear Concepts
If you don’t understand a concept in your textbook, you’re essentially reduced to three options: 1/ stare at the diagrams until they make sense, 2/ go to the library, or 3/ call a friend.
5/ Remembering Birthdays/Keeping Up with Important Developments in Peoples’ Lives
Facebook has made birthday calendars obsolete for everyone except me; I still keep a calendar of birthdays on my computer! When this fails, my friends are kind enough to help me construct new ones.
The current social expectation is for one to remember any and all life-changing events in his/her closest friends’ lives. This is made more difficult when people tend to inform their social circles of accomplishments and successes en masse, via Facebook or tweets; one must make a concerted effort to ask about, and remember, such things. When an acquaintance becomes irritated you haven’t heard about the new car he posted about on Facebook, one must gently remind him of you don’t have Facebook, and politely assure him you’re sure his new car looks fabulous.
(Solution: Smile politely. You don’t miss his bi-weekly updates on his new cars anyway).
Facebook has made birthday calendars obsolete for everyone except me; I still keep a calendar of birthdays on my computer! When this fails, my friends are kind enough to help me construct new ones.
The current social expectation is for one to remember any and all life-changing events in his/her closest friends’ lives. This is made more difficult when people tend to inform their social circles of accomplishments and successes en masse, via Facebook or tweets; one must make a concerted effort to ask about, and remember, such things. When an acquaintance becomes irritated you haven’t heard about the new car he posted about on Facebook, one must gently remind him of you don’t have Facebook, and politely assure him you’re sure his new car looks fabulous.
(Solution: Smile politely. You don’t miss his bi-weekly updates on his new cars anyway).