I listened to an episode of NPR's LifeKit about what we've "lost" to the internet. I think it was billed as "how to get it back" but I didn't find a whole lot of actually tangible advice in that regard. Or perhaps I got distracted by my meal prep and the fact that my lunch break was almost over and I still had to pee... But I downloaded that episode (yes, I'm still downloading, not streaming, podcasts - old habits die hard) because the title resonated with a thought I've been having a lot lately. What did we give up in favor of the internet? in favor of smart phones? in favor of evermore cell and data coverage? Many of my friends these days are about 7 years or more younger than I am and I've come to realize that their childhood experiences were often vastly different from my own. They often cannot remember a time before the internet.
Something to ponder...
But the before I wanted to look at today was not before internet completely, but rather before internet completely overtook our lives. You might think that this is a bit silly for me to ponder, since for the previous three years I was living without internet in my home. But our weekly forays to the library to tap into that endless stream was still a major point of our lives and what so much of what we did revolved around before and after that download/upload session.
The period of my life that I'm pondering right now is when internet was intermittent, not guaranteed to be on my own personal device, and not something that I spent a whole lot of time every day - or even every week - engaging with. What was my life like when internet was a tool instead of an unending stream of content? And perhaps I'm also contemplating this because Jack's field season has started and I have been displeased with how I've spent my extra alone time so far. Let's just say that I've done a lot of looking for content and very little consumption thereof. An internet version of standing in front of the open refrigerator door combined with old-fashioned television channel surfing.
When I think about those days before the internet reached its inkblots into every blank moment of my life, this is what I can remember doing:
I would spend about an hour on the computer every few days, answering emails (these were almost exclusively from people I know in real life) and perhaps writing a blog post for that week. I think the old-fashioned Fb would have been a part of this, too, but my memories of Fb are too tied up in what it is now to remember what it was like before. I remember that I didn't like it much then, for different reasons, and that somewhere in my first or second year of college I deleted my account.
Every other waking-not-working hour would be spent doing something off of this list:
- walking/hiking/exploring
- yoga: my first exposure to podcasts was actually a yoga instructor in Minnesota whose 1-2 hour long yoga classes I would listen to and enact under the ramada in my backyard in Big Bend.
- letter writing: so many letters! I probably averaged 2-3 a week. And I always used to illustrate the envelopes, something I barely take time to do anymore even when I do write.
- reading
- knitting: usually without anything in the background like tv or audiobooks or podcasts. Just knitting and observing the world around me.
- writing: I was still filling notebooks back then. The number of story starts that populate the dark corners of my laptop storage show just how much I was actively creating worlds with my mind back then. And how seldom I've been doing it in the last ten years of my life.
- playing musical instruments and coming up with new songs or learning old ones - often with other people!
- making breakfast: this is something that I did almost every day when I lived in Big Bend, and quite often when I lived at Montezuma Well, too. The yogurt and trail mix that I have almost everyday now used to be my go-to lunch or afternoon snack.
- admiring the scenery: staring off into the landscape instead of into my computer or phone screen.
- planning: poring over maps and other resources to figure out where I might explore next; gazing at the empty spaces around me and deciding how I might fill them with growing things if I had the time and the resources; planning special get-togethers with my friends; planning what epic thing I was going to do on my birthday (something I really noticed myself missing when it happened this year...)
- chilling with friends: watching a movie (often on VHS), making a meal together, going on a hike or a bike ride, or just chatting it up and asking them about life's questions (they were almost always a decade or more older than I was).
- painting: it was brand new to me then! Also, sketching, which I still did a lot of (especially for envelopes).
Less than 30% of those involved looking at a screen for more than a moment. And all of those involved a finite amount of content to choose from.
On Tuesday I got off work and went for a bike ride for an hour, came home and showered, made and ate dinner, then walked to my first meeting of the local Artist and Makers Association. On the walk back I was struck by an inspiration for a story so strong, and when I got home I immediately sat down at the kitchen table and started writing. Yes, on my laptop, but using my old OmmWriter program that shuts out everything else and makes it seem like I'm using a tool instead of a Distractomatic 5000. In one hour I wrote nearly 9000 words. And it was GOOD writing, too.
Where am I going with all of this? I'm not sure at the moment. Getting off Fb was a big step (and I still haven't deleted the actual account, because of the ability to use the messenger side of things for certain people) but I think that I'm ready now to take the next. I'm just feeling around for what that is.
If you've read all the way to here, go ahead and tell me: what is it that you used to spend your time with before the internet became all-consuming? What did you used to use to fill your blank spaces? How did you use the internet back when it was only a tool and not a torrent?
Until next time!
