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Ask HN: When was the last time you lived 24 hours without the Internet?

27 points by Red_Tarsius ↗ HN
It has recently occured to me that I didn't quite remember my last day "off" the Internet. It was maybe 4 years ago, I'm not so sure.

The answer to this question was the first step that lead me to a straight change of habits I'm applying to my daily life. The Internet is a blessing for all mankind, but the amount of time I spent hoarding knowledge was detrimental to actual projects and health. I could even call it an addiction.

So, out of curiosity, When was your last time you lived 16~24 hours in a row without the Internet? Do you even remember it?

EDIT: For some weird reason the thread got istantly pushed down from the front page. Anyway, thanks for participating in the conversation and sharing your experiences!

53 comments

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monroepe
Probably about a year ago. But I was only checking the internet about 3 hours per week total back then. Now I can't get away from it.
fandawg195
Yes, when I was on a remote island in Thailand. It actually felt refreshing being disconnected from the internet for several days.
caio1982
That must have been very remote because I have been to some remote islands in Thailand and they all had fantastic internet speeds. In one of them (Koh Lanta) I remember downloading a 1080p movie in about 10 minutes. On wifi, inside a hut.

My last time 100% without internet was in Nepal, last year. Nearly 40 days offline.

vram22
Interesting. What were the costs like? of the different components of the stay there, not just Internet. I've been in some remote places on vacation, but some of them did not have good Internet access or it was expensive.
caio1982
With 20 dollars a day you're good in most parts of Thailand, including a clean decent bed to sleep on and two meals a day. I never paid for fast internet there anyway, it was always free and included in the bungalows prices.
borat4prez
Vacation up north a few summers ago. Brought my laptop, but there was no connection unless I went to a coffee shop in town.
dalke
Last summer I did a cycle camping trip. No internet for 7 days.
tekknolagi
About a month ago, on a bike trip with my family! Thailand has spotty internet :)
etimberg
Last summer for 2 weeks at my girlfirend's cottage. Didn't have cell service either. We did have satellite TV though.
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gk1
> I don't go anywhere I won't at least have 3G coverage.

While I understand lifestyles differ, I can't help but think that's a shame. Many of the world's most beautiful and inspiring places are remote. Do you not have a second-in-command you can put in charge while you're on vacation?

DalekSall
Last summer @ Wacken Open Air, i lived ~5 days without internet.
jdawg77
Losing my job last year made me re-evaluate a lot of aspects of my life, since April, I spent time off the internet; though to be fair, until September, a good chunk of my 'offline' time was burying my head in a bottle. (Just FYI, terrible idea - you torch a lot of long term memory that way from the drinking period).

Weekends, after starting to overwork again, have stopped being for the internet and more for phone calls, or outside, or cooking epic food. Anything analog. Digital will still be there if I grab my phone, but, I'm trying to remember and learn how to live life in 3d.

peterjancelis
The week before Christmas so about 5 weeks ago. I booked a very nice hotel in Nha Trang for a 3 day trip and not taking my computer was a very deliberate choice.

I didn't suffer from any withdrawal symptoms, although I napped a lot (which I normally never do) but that had more to do with 1) not sleeping well the night before on the way there and 2) my employer knowing I was unreachable.

Kicking off from sugar is much harder, to me at least.

gk1
Last week. I spent 11 days backpacking throughout Dominican Republic. My phone was off, except a few times when I connected to wifi to check for urgent emails or issues.

It was amazing... It was the first time in a year that I was able to pull away from daily minutiae and think about things from a much higher level (such as career goals and big plans for this year).

I came back full of energy and motivation that I hope to carry through the end of the year... or until my next trip.

JoeAltmaier
Its wonderful. I spend a week a year bicycling across my state (with 20,000 other people). Some maintain their phone addiction; you see them clustered around public outlets with their chargers and blank expressions.

But the rest of us leave that at home; laugh and talk and think for mile after mile and come away changed.

breitling
That sounds fun. Where does it take place?
JoeAltmaier
Its called RAGBRAI (ragbrai.org) which stands for "Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa". The Des Moines Register sponsors it. Been going on since the 70's, when a columnist invited readers to accompany himself and his wife on a cross-state ride. 200 people showed up to the 1st one; today there's from 10,000 to 25,000 people per day depending on the proximity of larger cities etc.

Its like a fair in each town we go through - with food stands and entertainment and beer garden and the main street blocked off for a block party. The 'overnight towns' have that times 10. My family camps with an outfitter hauling our gear; we bike all day with just a bike pack and a wallet.

The whole week is around 450 miles, more or less depending on the route each year. This year's route has been announced; check the website!

Out-of-state riders can sign up with OOS (Out Of State - an outfitter specializing in visitors) or with any other club you can contact. Mine is BIC (Bicyclists of Iowa City), one of the ride sponsors. They haul gear and reserve campground space for the group including a pavilion tent, beer coolers and solar-powered showers and cellphone charger.

pdxandi
That sounds like Cycle Oregon, except they limit the participants to 2,000.
pdxandi
I'm a regular backpacker and it's wonderful to leave it all behind.
witty_username
A month ago when my internet went down. Pretty irritated, nothing much to do apart from reading magazines in my free time.
z3ugma
Canoed down the Wisconsin River for 3 days last summer. Spending time alone with nature was a great slowdown and reboot. It really helps put in perspective the hectic rush of American life and how little benefit worrying about small things at work brings me.
epochwolf
The last time was probably 8 years ago, before I had a smart phone. I went winter camping in a relatively remote area with some friends.

Edit: I should probably add, I don't see constant internet access as any more of a problem than books. If anything my kindle (which is always in airplane mode) is a worse impact on my productivity than the internet.

somabc
Spent a year with no home broadband - 2011.
giles
8 days in Cuba.

To gain access to the internet you were required to goto the business center at one of the government hotels. The business center sold 60 minute time cards issued by the government for ~$15. These cards would have a unique code that would grant you limited access to the network.

Unfortunately for 7 out of the 8 days every hotel I went to had ran out of these cards meaning no connection to the internet whatsoever.

cwt
Twice in past 3 weeks. I was at the Alafia river rendezvous, 1640-1840 traders gathering. Kept the Internet tucked away for a few days at a time.
habosa
This summer I went on a 3 week road trip around the Southwest US. Went to 7 or 8 national parks, camping mostly with some random hotels. I had access to mobile Internet but I wanted to experiment with a full 3 week news hiatus. In that time I didn't use the internet on my phone (except navigation when lost), read any newspaper, listen to non-music radio, or watch TV.

The strangest thing was that when I got home, I really hadn't missed anything. In a normal day I read dozens of articles and consume news from so many sources that when I got home I expected to have to catch up. But I really didn't. I think we consume a lot of information just because its there, but so little remains relevant a few days or weeks later.

CocaKoala
Mid June. I had just gotten married; my wife and I turned our phones off for our honeymoon and spent a week enjoying each other's company (and also drinking a lot of wine) in a cottage in Napa Valley.
mikelbring
A week in Jamaica when I was 15. That was 11 years ago.
bluedevil2k
About 2 years ago, took a 4 day bus tour of Ireland, where free WiFi was mostly non-existent outside of Dublin. Whenever I travel in Europe, I purposely don't buy a SIM card or get the AT&T Passport. It forces me to be disconnected.
andremendes
11 days in 2013, while I was taking a Vipassana meditation course in São Paulo.
spypsy
Summer, spent 12 days camping in an empty Greek island. I had to climb to the top of the hill just to get phone signal so even though I could theoretically go online, chilling became a priority.
bradleyy
The men of our family try to get to Montana every year for elk season.

Remote, cold, feet hurt, sore, and no Internet access for 24-48 hour stretches (sometimes longer). But the pack weighs on me more than the disconnection, even after over 20 years of daily access.

partisan
This is timely. I am planning to spend the next few nights free of my laptop. I usually browse the web and plan massive things in my head, but I haven't written a line of code in my spare time in a week or so. I think I am burned out and could use the break, even if it's just for a few hours.

The last time I went without internet connectivity was 3 years ago, celebrating my two year wedding anniversary with my wife in Dominican Republic. The hotel has wifi in the lobby area, but I learned from a previous trip that it was an exercise in frustration trying to get anything other than pure text.