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From pink hippos to Nerf guns: Living without the Internet is easier than you think

In life, sometimes you just become overstimulated and need to take a break from what you’re constantly doing and recharge the batteries or change the light bulbs. That’s exactly what I did when, on the spur of the moment, I chose to spend an entire week away from the Internet.

That’s right, no Internet. What does that mean, exactly? No Facebook, no checking email, no going on Twitter, no reading about last night’s sports scores, no seeing headlines of the latest celebrity news and, hardest of all for someone who uploads nearly daily content, no YouTube.

In the days following my experience away from the Internet, I got quite the range of responses from people when I told them. Things ranged from “How did you survive?” to “What did you do with your time?” to “That must have been great.”

The truth of the matter is, I did miss the Internet. Not because I’m addicted to posting or uploading or tweeting but because of the general lack of access to knowledge I faced. I was watching TV one night with my family and a commercial came on that featured Shirley Temple and I thought to myself, “I wonder how old she is, or if she died.” With the Internet, this information is a short trip to Wikipedia to type in her name and get the information, but without the Web, it’s a trip to the library and a conversation with a librarian who pulls out some recent article about Shirley Temple. I missed the access of information the most.

It was comforting to not know what was going on in the lives of all the people that I’m friends with on Facebook and Twitter who constantly update their statuses. The good thing about this was that I met up with my “real life” friends a couple times during the week.

Since I wasn’t on the Web at all during the day, I had a lot of extra spare time to do some things that I just hadn’t gotten around to doing. I managed to start and finish a 600-page book titled “Those Guys Have All the Fun” about what goes on behind the scenes at ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn. I also spent some time going out with my friends and celebrated Christmas with my family instead of rushing off to spend my Amazon gift card money or researching the best prices on lightsabers.

I even got a little scientific with my extra time off, trying to test the theory that you can’t really bend a bullet, only I used my Nerf guns. Sure enough, it’s a fact that bullets don’t bend and “Wanted” is pure fiction.

I even did a little creative writing and wrote a short story about a pink hippo who is friends with a blue seagull.

Since there wasn’t any Internet, I went back and spent some time playing some of my older games from the days of my PlayStation 1 and 2. I had forgotten how good some classic games were and how much less aggravating they were than the current crop of online multiplayer-based games like “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield.”

After my week was over and I’d had my fun, it was time to come back. I believe it is impossible to attend classes at Otterbein, especially ones in the journalism department, without the use of the Internet. It was certainly chaotic, coming back to nearly 300 nonspam messages on my various email accounts, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

But it was worth it. I came back to Otterbein refreshed and ready to start J-term and work on this magazine. I had so many good ideas and one pretty awesome story to tell.

I suggest that you try this at some point because it was very refreshing to come back with things to think about and new ideas to bring to the table. Who knows, I might one day even try a week without any technology.


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