A few weeks ago, I had this challenge with a friend who’s a techie person. He uses internet in his everyday life to research, scroll on facebook, watch on youtube and same other stuff like what the others do. In my situation, I used internet for daily communication (yes, I really talk a lot with a bunch of people), I often watch on youtube and Netflix too. From time to time, I check a lot of things on google especially during the quarantine days.
So my friend told me, he would be off to internet for 5 days minimum and at first, I’m puzzled why at this moment when you need to connect to other people and entertain yourself to at least keep your sanity? Take note; He is an overseas Filipino worker who is literally alone during the quarantine period. His answer was simple, “I just want to free up my mind and check how far can I go without internet”. Then I suddenly remembered my childhood days. I used to enjoy dull times even without internet so I said I want to try it too. So we had some rules like, strictly no internet but you can watch t.v., use the desktop or laptop but still no internet (just Microsoft word, powerpoint, etc.) We can also use our cellphones for downloaded games, editing but we cannot document or take videos of the whole process for it may give external stimuli and affect our mind conditioning.
And here’s what I’ve realized during the “No Internet Challenge Days”;
* Natural Environment Helps You To Be Creative *
–During the first 2 days, not using the internet made me felt like I’m not eating for a day. I’m not an internet addict but everything I do has connection with the internet. So it was like, I can’t do anything. During those times that I felt like doing nothing, I pause and just looked at my surroundings. I let my skin feel the touch of the air, my ears hear the smallest sound detail, my eyes see the bright and warm colors everywhere and to my surprise, creative ideas suddenly popped up in my mind. Since I am now focusing on a blog and editing text photos and related stuff, I really need to be creative and I thought searching all day on the internet would give me satisfying ideas but that’s not how it turned out.
* You Can Control Your Own Mind *
– I’m the type of person who can be easily swayed by my emotions. So before, it was my dilemma how to make my mind in control instead of my emotions. I have this long-term goal of being fit and healthy. However, every time I workout, I feel tired easily and after a couple of days trying, I’ll end up being sad because I still can’t see any progress and then I stop. But the truth is, I knew it within myself that I’m not doing enough because I quit easily. During the no internet days, I have no choice but to focus not to turn on the wifi and I can’t do much so I put work out on my routine and this time, it’s so much easier. I have nothing in mind but I need this to be healthy and fit. It’s like my mind is shouting “You can do it!” that I can’t even hear my emotion saying “I’m tired”. And thanks to that, I now enjoy working out!
* Life is Simple *
– I used to envy kids and want to stay like one because of how life seems to be so much easier for them. Turning to an adult really pisses me off and want to know one sign that you were like one? “Adults make things complicated”. Without the internet, I’ve learned to appreciate every single thing around me. The chance to talk personally to the people I love, the ability to walk, run and jump, the fun things I can do like drawing, painting, writing and more. I realized that, if I have no internet, then, I have no internet! What’s to whine about that? Life is simple, be good whether you will be rewarded or not, make mistakes, learn from it and don’t do it again, talk if you like and be quiet if you don’t, do what is right whether you were told to do it or not (I supposed adults already know what’s right and wrong?) So yeah, just live the life like how you want it to be and use the life chances you have simply and wisely.
We all have different personalities and how cutting off the internet in my system affected me may be different from the others but, we all have our free will. Try it or not, it’s up to you 🙂
Got photo from Getty Images, https://www.inc.com/jeff-bercovici/quitting-twitter-changed-my-life.html
