One year, no internet- what’s reasonable?

[Mustlovebronte]

Hello and merry Christmas! I am thinking of quitting the internet for one year and pitching a non-fiction book/long form articles about the experience. This has been mulling in my head for the last few years and for different reasons 2025 would be an ideal time to do it. Similar to Ultra Processed People, I feel like companies have sucked us all into this insidious, life- sucking trap. I want to experience and write about the good, the bad, and the ugly of our digital world by using myself as a test subject (as well as getting expert opinion/latest research). 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). I am self employed but most customers email me which is something I would need to work around (and nothing's impossible). I guess I want to gauge what people would consider ‘cheating’. Thanks for reading and really looking forward to any opinions xx

I would find that a completely uninteresting premise for a book. My life until I was 30 was without internet, so what? I think my experience of not having TV in my country until I was 14 is probably slightly more interesting. But only slightly.

Honestly the book pitch sounds SO BORING

I would love to read a book like this! It would have to be no Internet AT ALL though, including asking other people to use it for you to do things like book flights, shop etc..

It's not hard to imagine for many of us though OP, as we actually lived many years of our life without internet (as it wasn't yet invented). So 'we' are not your demographic. Those who were born INTO the digital age wouldn't want to ever quit (and why would they??). So they are not your demographic.

So...who are you aiming it at?

Also...as others have said, 'no internet' should be that in its entirety, so you would have to be totally off-grid (completely and utterly!) Have you ever used a typewriter, do you have terrestrial TV, are you prepared to be without your mobile for a whole year?

Have you REALLY thought this through? 🤷‍♀️

Maybe start small, go off grid for a week and write a blog about it.

I think no internet at all, definitely. Set an out of office email with your (Nokia) phone number on it on Dec 31 - back on Jan 1 2026.

PPs have said it would be like the first decades of their life but it would be different in that you’d be living offline in a world that is otherwise online. I think it could be a positive experience/good story but you won’t know until you’ve done it. Johann Hari’s book was different from this.

Basically you now have a week to organise your life around not having the internet, so I’d get on with it. Including cancelling your internet connection. I think a picture of that cancellation would be required in your book. You could go and talk to other people who are offline. Count how much money you’ve saved/spent extra. Could be good!

Offline completely.

I nearly laughed out loud when you said checking your Whatsapp and email once a day.

I don't think you're cut out for this task OP although it would be very interesting to see how you got on without it for a year.

I'd be very interested to read it but I'd also be expecting you to not use ANY internet. That includes phones, computers, connected TV, no emails, no online shopping, no mobile banking or bills, no online NHS services.

I think if you're not going to go offline completely then you should refer to it as quitting social media rather than quitting the internet.

I appreciate that makes for a less shocking/ intriguing topic for a book, but it is essentially what you're doing.

It's almost impossible to quit the internet entirely and still live in the modern world (hence why you want to keep hold of your WhatsApp and emails).

It's not hard to imagine for many of us though OP, as we actually lived many years of our life without internet (as it wasn't yet invented).

Being born into a world without the internet is not the same as giving it up in the present day when so much of modern life is reliant on it.

Yes, many of us over the age of eg: 40 can remember a life without the internet but the point is that it's absolutely not our daily life now, is it?

Even my 77-year-old dad, who refuses point-blank to get a smartphone and still pays bills by post (ffs), uses email now and then.

I would probably read a book about this, but you'd have to be absolutely all-in, OP. The fact that you've floated checking your emails and WhatsApp once a day suggests that you might not be fully committed to this as a concept, though...

The only way you can have a USP is to go cold turkey (pun intended) literally all year. If you check emails and Whatsapp there is no interest at all. Finalise the deal before you switch off and switch on next Jan 1st. Get someone to intermittently film you on an old camcorder

Yeah, this.

If you’re checking email and WhatsApp; you haven’t quit the internet and you’ve got no hook at all.

I don't think it's possible nowadays to live without the Internet. Bank accounts, paying bills, arranging appointments, buying online because shops don't have what you need... All this and more.
I wouldn't be interested in a book like that, unless I'm thinking of doing it myself, which I'm not.
Use the time for something more useful.

If I was reading about someone going offline for a year but they were actually online daily I would think they were a big fraud!

Either do it or don't do it.

Yes sorry but it’s only worth it if you do everything offline and pay the premium if that means using a prepaid electric meter or buying your train and plane tickets at a physical travel agent. You’d need to receive and submit all your work by post too.

It's not clear to me what this book is going to be about.

Surely, it will mainly be a year of struggling to live and manage workarounds for NOT having the internet.

And how can you talk about the downsides and ugly side of the internet when a) much of that doesn't affect you personally and b) you can really only talk about the downsides and ugly side if you're ON the internet researching it and other people's experiences (because it will be affecting a lot of people much more seriously than it's affecting you).

Surely the most you can do is stop using it and (the total inconvenience of that aside) monitor any improvements in your own welfare. Which doesn't really match your OP.

Or am I missing something...?

Surely the fun of the book would be the work-arounds? And also the things that happen that we wouldn't expect? Pointless if you're on WhatsApp and email

I am employed full time in a job where (like most jobs) use of the internet is non-negotiable, so if I were to 'quit the internet' I would have to discount using it for work purposes unless I wanted to quit my job! Other than that I would expect 'quitting' to mean no (personal) use at all - including no streaming services, phone apps, 'smart' appliances, WhatsApp, Kindle, online buying etc. But with the work use continuing I suspect any book I tried to write about my experience would be rather lukewarm.

You have to remember that many of us grew up or were already adults by the time the internet came along. I completely understand that quitting in a digital world is not at all the same as time-travelling to 1983; but you will have to make an impression on people who are not going to be remotely wowed by you having to watch DVDs rather than Netflix or travel to a shop to buy something rather than ordering it online or phone someone rather than whatsapping etc.

You'd need to work around those exact reasons for not being able to give up the internet completely in order for the book to hold any interest. So definitely no email or WhatsApp whatsoever. No online banking. Absolutely no internet at all.

Literally the only interesting thing about the premise is finding out whether it's possible to live a modern urban life without using the internet at all (obviously there are elderly people and very "off grid" alternative people who do this anyway, but how will you make a life and career which has relied on being online work?). I imagine it would have to be one of those mainly light hearted/ humourous books about the mishaps and misadventures encountered when tying yourself in knots to find offline ways to do things which companies and corporations and customers have transferred online, with a serious message (either uplifting or worrying) as a sidenote.

There is absolutely nothing interesting about reading about someone who just decided to use the internet less though. Maybe you could get a (dull) article out of that if you already write a regular lifestyle column or something but it would not hold up to being a book or the central theme for multiple multiple articles.

Phone is ok surely? And I guess non internet end connected computer like word or similar to type up the experience? I also wouldn't mind if you did a monthly podcast but someone else would need to upload it for you. and you wouldn't be able to access the comments.

If you run a small business as you say id be wary of jeapodising that for this experiment unless you can afford to lose it

It would have to be a 'dumb phone'.

How would you test impact? A sample of one is not conclusive and if you're reflecting on your own experience you have to allow for confirmation bias - do you expect to feel happier? Sadder? Isolated?

With respect, not many people have the luxury of going offline - jobs, banking, education is all facilitated by technology. My 94 year old nan lives with the internet as do many elderly people so it's not really something newsworthy - she's very reliant on other people FWIW

Already been done really. Have a read of The Utopia Experiment by Dylan Evans, The Moneyless Man - Mark Boyle it's actually mostly about going without money for a year but there are his experiences of no internet also. Also Why you Can't Pay Attention by Johann Hari. He also explains his experience of going without the internet and how that effected his attention and focus.

Another point is that many people go off-grid for their holidays - I do myself (camping where there is no phone signal etc.) and wouldn't really consider it noteworthy, so if you are effectively going offline for intervals between checking emails or whatever, you will lose a lot of impact.