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I understand your original question, and you’re right, life is a continual learning process. However, I do not see any meaning “revelation” in this piece, just a slew of trite lines about the internet when there are much bigger and more obvious issues at play. Those are not confronted and do you really need a year away from the internet to come to the conclusion that the majority of your problems are self-imposed? The reason why you buy that is because it’s true and not that big of a secret, your dentist probably has a framed picture on her office wall that says as much. I’m not sure where your admiration stems from.

22 days ago on I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet 1 reply

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I would imagine that the commenters and Paul Miller are confident enough in themselves that if they had an issue with the substance of my words, they would just respond with germane points. Your last sentence is an interesting thought though.

23 days ago on I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet 1 recommend

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Watching the video, maybe more introspection into the fragility of his personal relationships would have helped the piece. For example, the scene at the end of the article in which he explains the internet to his niece with tears in his eyes does not really match the scene in the video. She seems to be stating that he disconnected from the internet because he wanted to and not that she thought that he had stopped skyping with her because he wanted to, and if you skyped with your niece regularly and stopped, don’t you think that you would share this information with a 5 yo that you loved rather than just let her assume that you don’t want to interact with her anymore? That episode reeks of dishonesty, at worst, and insincerity, at best.

I would have liked to see a deeper exploration of that blind spot in the author’s personality. For example, why did familial relationships mean so little to him that he could not simply charge his phone – his only real tool of communication – and save his parents from such a high level of concern that they had to send family members to his apartment to check on him? Or, how could a visit to see his brother make him feel like an outsider? And how could you define someone as your “best New York friend” if you cannot even keep social plans with said person when you live in the same city?

If the author was younger, I would chalk this type of behavior up to the narcissism of youth, but he’s 26, so he shouldn’t think or behave like that anymore. Unfortunately, those issues are not explored, and he filled up his time with traveling and exercises in futility like reading the great books. If you haven’t developed a passion for reading by age 26, I highly doubt that you’re going to be able to jump into the great books at that stage. These are works of art placed within a broader chronological discussion of ideas and without an understanding of that context, then you’ll lack the ability to appreciate their “greatness” in the first place. That decision just seems rather juvenile and a big waste of time.

Perhaps another year off really looking at his life would help. Don’t know, but this is pretty weak and it’s kind of scary that so many commenters had a positive reaction to this piece.

23 days ago on I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet 2 replies 2 recommends

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Actually, deltaman pretty much nailed it. This entire experiment was inane and frankly, if this was going to useful at all, a more educated writer – one who is at least conversant with media effects theory – would have needed to undertake it. Seriously, what answers did he find? He seems to have only confirmed that his life offline was rather uninteresting because…well, he’s uninteresting, and perhaps the internet allowed him to hide from that inconvenient truth. Other than that, the only insight you could glean from that article is that tech writing has a fairly low bar. The internet should not be the determinant factor in your ability to consider “the greater questions of life” and this certainly was not a “monumental” feat. Let’s not even get into the whole burn out at 26 statement and the fact that he was being paid for this or that he actually had the option of returning to his parents’ home had he chosen to do so.

23 days ago on I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet 2 replies 4 recommends