Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Going Off The Grid

In the days before our trip to Corpus Christi, I decided that under no circumstances did I want to be checking my e-mail constantly during my vacation. I was starting to get annoyed with how much time I spend online doing pointless things, and I thought vacation was a perfect time to hit the proverbial reset button and go cold-turkey on my Internet usage.

So I went a week without the Internet. And it was quite a feat since we were only out of town for four days, so I had to be good while I was at home too.

I was amazed at how much free time I had once I stopped checking my usual websites — social media and Google Reader especially. I was surprised to find that I really didn't miss Pinterest or Facebook, and even once I got back home I wasn't super keen on catching up on the things I might have "missed."

What?! You can't be serious!

On the other hand, I'm accustomed to looking things up on my iPhone when I need to, and as we were out of town I constantly wanted to look online for restaurant recommendations and whether or not jellyfish can sting you if they're dead ... but I limited myself to only using apps I already had.

It was nice to disconnect for a little while, but it was difficult! I'm glad to be back online, though I want to focus more on spending time doing things I enjoy both online and off instead of browsing mindlessly to kill time.

Have you ever taken a break from the Internet? What would be hardest for you to go without?