When tech writer Paul Miller decided to go a year without the Internet, he had grand ambitions of exploring the freedoms that an analogue life could offer. And at first, things started off great. He read more, got in shape, visited with family and even wrote half of a novel. But months into the experiment, things started to change: He became lonely, isolated and lost motivation to explore his offline “freedom.” In the end, he came away with this revelation: “… the Internet isn’t an individual pursuit, it’s something we do with each other. The Internet is where people are.”
The full essay is a really interesting piece about the role technology plays in community, how relationships develop in the digital age and the positive side of being online with the rest of the world …
