One year, no internet- what’s reasonable?

@TunipTheVegimal24

How DID people get insurance quotes before the internet?? Smartphones were commonplace by the time I had my first car. Ring them up maybe? Presumably they had people on the phones in the past then? How did the people the other end know what deals they could give you...?

My first job in the 1980s was working in an insurance brokers. The insurance clerks had huge books provided by the various insurance companies that they would look in to get the quotes. They would then phone up the insurance companies to see if they could better the offer in their quote books.

Unless you have an active community and get trades in by word of mouth how will you check reviews if you need some work doing?

This would be quite far down my list of concerns, tbh.

no internet at all OP, though I think the book might be more suitable to write 40 years in the future. I've lived half my life offline, it would be a boring read. But I suppose you could always find a slant, it needs just something a little bit extra? What I don't know, but something.

Offline completely. I was 100% offline for a week in summer and it was far more difficult than I expected it to be. Not because of the urge to use the internet, but not having an app available when paying for parking as the card reader was broken. A lot more is online than I realised.

Good luck for your 2025!

I have just asked Alexa if we really need the internet and my 14 year old daughter just asked if zebra can eat eggs haha good luck with no internet but it does sound a bit shit

Oh also: don't forget that part of the value of the book would lie in showing readers how they can drastically reduce internet use. If you don't attempt to go screen-free in your freelance work, you'd be cutting off much of the readership who'd be curious about creative ways of tackling the really hard challenges. Not being on social media is one level of difficulty that I think we all know how to cope with, but working without internet is a totally different, and really interesting, ballgame.

My advice, for this kind of trade book, would be to work with an agent. See what kind of response you get. They will know the market much better than most and if they think the idea has legs, they will shape a proposal, possibly different versions of it, with you which corresponds to what publishers want to see.
Competing titles do demonstrate a market, but they can also be a turn-off. A book like this would need a major (expensive) publicity push to fulfil its promise, so editors and publicists need to feel confident that they will be able to explain very clearly in a short pitch to review editors what is distinctive about it. (They would also need to be sure that you can take an active hand in promoting the book, drawing on an established platform - they will want to know how many followers do you have on X, etc.) I imagine you would use the one-year personal experience as an enveloping narrative structure to draw people into the real core of the book, i.e. your exploration of screen culture, and I don't think that is enough of a hook - don't get me wrong, it's a good hook, but you need something else alongside. Don't rely on this. Is the originality going to lie in how you synthesise existing research? Will you unearth a provocative, sophisticated, strong guiding argument that others haven't yet (i.e. more than that the internet is a life-sucking trap - no offence)?
Honestly, I wouldn't do it if your motivation is writing about it. It will be hard to hide that from readers, and if they do get wind of it, it will throw the legitimacy of your conclusions into question. The motivation should be a personal or an academic curiosity. (Patrick Bringley's All the Beauty in the World is probably a good model.)
Very best of luck.

If you were living totally off grid (no power etc) for a year in a wooden hut somewhere out in the wild then that would be an interesting read.

Off line is off line. No internet/ email / smart phone/ apps at all. It's like people who claim they don't watch TV but still watch netflix, they're lying to themselves.

For those who don't buy your book, here's the short version: It's doable; it's difficult; you miss out on some things but you get more time for other things; a lot of people will think you are weird.

It is nothing like preinternet days because society relies on internet now.

Yes - I think the people saying "well, I grew up without the internet" are missing the point - I did as well but I wasn't missing anything because it didn't exist in the first place 🙈

So much of life is online now - paying bills, doing taxes, watching television, listening to music, doing the food shop, communicating with schools or businesses. I would personally find it very difficult (and stressful) to even try and live without the internet now.

I can’t imagine it being that interesting really (sorry) Also, by checking in once a day, you’re not really giving up the internet anyway 🤷‍♀️

One person's experience would be uninteresting.
A whole community going offline, or a range of different people in different settings would be more insightful.
It is nothing like preinternet days because society relies on internet now. Those of us who remember how things used to be have a headstart, eg we own paper maps and paper address books.

I'm thinking this reminds me of that Breatharian woman who claimed to live on Prana (celestial light). Then someone saw her eating a potato or something and she said well yes, of course I can eat, but I'm not living on the food - I'm definitely living off the Prana.

"Living without internet" but using email and WhatsApp is a bit like that.

I don't think it sounds interesting tbh. Firstly if you did the lite version and checked emails and WhatsApp once a day, you would be living like my mother, so nothing new and as dearly as I love her I'm not sure the world is clamouring for a book about her lifestyle.

Even if you went hardcore and genuinely used no internet at all, you would just be shifting the usage to the person you spoke to on the phone - they would use the internet for you, to carry out whatever function you need. You would prove how difficult it is not to have ready internet access, but we all know that.

To be honest, I would prefer a fiction book on this, and Nick Spalding already wrote "Logging off" .

It's been done. There are other books out there (Against the Current for one). Offline living is a thing you know!
But to answer your question - checking in once a day rather defeats the purpose of the whole exercise!

You'd probably need to compile your own mini phone book from, for example, leaflets delivered through her door or the sign on the takeaway building.

It is not impossible to function without the internet, but it is very difficult. The strategies you would need to overcome the difficulties are literally the point of the book.

Before or after writing it. Obviously.

My question is, if you were to pick up a book like this, would you expect the author to go offline completely and work around the inconveniences, or would you consider it reasonable that they checked their email and WhatsApp once per day (as an example).

If you did this your “book” would be pointless. I’m not sure how you think that would be a year without internet. Not very clever

I'd be really interested to read about someone living completely off-grid, without moving to a remote island on whatever. Just living day to day with no internet. How it impacts work particularly.

My elderly aunt does and life is becoming increasingly hard for her.

Good luck with it - writing for a living isn't easy!

How about spending the year inventing ways to get round having to use USA and Chinese websites with some wires in your garage. Good luck

I think it's already been done including living in a log cabin in the woods. Might be a problem if you have to claim benefits during the year

I suspect the vast majority of elderly people who aren't on the internet have relatives who do all their internet-related jobs for them, though.

My in-laws didn't have internet until a few months ago - but their grown up children ordered stuff off Amazon for them, or dealt with their online bills and banking, as well as any online forms that needed organising.

I would wager that there are very, very few people nowadays who genuinely never use the internet for anything, ever. If OP is going offline for a year, she won't be able to just get people to do it for her - surely? Otherwise it kind of defeats the point.

You'll need the internet to market your book.

I would posit that many of the 'very elderly' who do this, use the Internet by proxy.
My DPs hardly use the Internet.
Except my DB, DH and I do online ordering, monitor emails and their NHS app, make appointments etc for them!