Goodbye online world

[NickStone]

I have been connected to the internet on and off (mostly on) since 1996/97. Over the past twelve months or so I have been thinking about disconnecting from the internet completely. My reasons are:

1. When at home I spend all day with the PC switched on and spend 100% of the time viewing the same web sites day in day out. Not only am I getting very bored with "surfing" the web but it is also stopping me doing other things. I put off doing other things (in the real world) just so that I can be "entertained" with viewing pages on the web. The web is also stopping me from doing other stuff on the PC. With constant "surfing" I may as well get rid of the PC and replace it with a tablet, but I don't want to do that. I prefer a PC.

I have arranged with my ISP (internet service provider) to cancel my account from 24 February. So it is goodbye to the internet.

[Simon]

I hear you and can relate to this. I found myself drinking too much beer and cut down to one bottle a day after work and no more than 4 on the weekends. I wasn't concerned about alcoholism as my as my health. The internet can be habit forming (especially Facebook) so I just ignore it. I cannot shut myself off from the internet as we have it at work, so many of us use it as a diversion between tasks. But it is not like I am paying my staff to play games all day.

Best wishes.

[dequire]

That's a drastic move, but we all have to do what's best for us, our families, and our sanity. Best of luck and well-wishes going forward. Always sad to see a community member go, whatever the reason.

[GreyGeek]

I've toyed with dropping the Internet as well, but it is like having a gigantic library right at my finger tips. Everything I have ever studied or plan on studying is right there, mostly free for the browsing. It is the most reliable news source I have, and one on which I can verify the validity of MSM news.
Many apps will not run if they cannot connect to the "mothership". Steam's Universe Sandbox^2, for instance. I play with that a lot. Minecraft as well. Khan Academy and tons of physics and math websites. I dropped Facebook years ago and Google's stuff last summer. Haven't missed either.

I'm 75 and feel fortunate that I can walk to the mailbox. Forget strenuous physical exercise. When I tried that at health clubs under supervision of Phys Ed graduates I did more damage to my joints and muscles than if I had just continued riding my bike for exercise. After my wife's second heart operation I was unable to leave her alone to go on walks, and she didn't want me to walk alone, so I have had less exercise than I normally had before her surgery.

Fortunately, I can still touch-type at reasonable speed without looking at the keyboard.

[Qqmike]

Removing the stimulus in an addictive pattern is one way to break the habit, I suppose. Kind of drastic.

I'm not an Internet junkie, but I've come to rely on it for many, many things--mainly research: health, news, home repair, recipes, science, philosophy, consumer-product research, hobby, on and on. I use my desktop PC(s) and tablet. Also, many companies assume you are connected and so push valuable info your way: medical records (e.g., "MyChart"-type portals), registrations, confirmations, verifications (uploading documents), and so on and on. I even get good pizza deals by going on-line and ordering (Papa John's is really good with this.) We could do without the Internet, but what a PITA it would be, having to take care of things the old-fashioned way--going to the library, calling on the telephone, using snail-mail, etc.

I quit smoking in 1999, and it doesn't bother me if you smoke (on my patio) or if someone leaves a pack of cigs laying around. I cut down on booze but I always have it in the house--beer and wine--and can use willpower to control my weekly intake. I have a 12-pack of beer in the frig, but I don't feel I have to drink it all in one night (those days are long gone) -- I can choose to have one or two or none, easily.

(As for exercise GG, as you probably know (since you are a good researcher, too), it doesn't have to be strenuous to be useful. Tai Chi is an example. You can make up your own "tai chi" type movements to stretch and move the arms, legs, and do gentle squats. Or walk slowly or moderately (lowers the blood sugar, too). In fact, one can simply walk (pace) around the house while talking on the phone or watching TV news or whatever. Stand up at the computer. Or lift light weights -- just lift them until you can feel some burn or effort. The older people I've known throughout life have all told me the same thing: Keep moving! (I'm 68 in April and follow this advice daily. I have many days where I feel like I'm 25 and can really push it. And days where I feel I can only walk very slowly, say, around the block a time or two but usually end up doing 30-45 minutes total.)

(Strange: I can't edit this post and fix that formatting at the end here, I can't place the last sentence "And days ..." right after "30-45 minutes total.")

[GreyGeek]

...

(Strange: I can't edit this post and fix that formatting at the end here, I can't place the last sentence "And days ..." right after "30-45 minutes total.")

Often, on the first line of a reply, about 20-30 characters in, the cursor will jump to the beginning of an imaginary line above the first line and below the quote box, and I cannot resume on the original line. I usually cancel, open a new reply box, and enter two or three CR's before I start typing.

[NickStone]

I've not gone yet. I just wanted to add some more reasons why I was quitting the internet.

Firstly I'm not quitting the internet completely, it's just the internet connection at home that I'm removing. Should I still need access to online "stuff" I will in future walk (or drive) to my local library and access it there.

Secondly, another reason why I am cancelling my home internet connection is due to the very slow download speeds I get from living round here. BT who owns the phone network (but rents out the last mile to your home to ISP's) won't upgrade to fiber optic where I live soi am am stuck using normal phone line for internet. My average download speed is 1.4Mbps, it can be "painfully" slow when downloading large files (especially when I download iso's of different Linux distributions because I like to try others. I installed Football Manager 2017 yesterday from Steam and it took 2+ hours to download 3GB.

Should I move to a better connected area or BT get off their arse and install fiberoptic round here then I'll probably get internet for my home again, but until then I won't have it at home.

[Qqmike]

Faster download speeds are better than slower d/l speeds. I'm currently at 20 MB/s d/l (DSL over phone line), BUT this has only been the case for the past 2 years. Two years ago (and before), I was using just 3 MB/s d/l -- slow, yeah, but it did the job.

[GreyGeek]

Your IPS appears to be using a highly compressed V.92 algorithm creating a Tier III connection. I'd drop that turkey too.

[Qqmike]

Your IPS appears to be using a highly compressed V.92 algorithm creating a Tier III connection. I'd drop that turkey too.

Me? or Nick? Mine is CenturyLink (not a lot of choice here, and others, like EarthLink use CenturyLink's infrastructure; I'm not paying much, maybe $30/month or so). Actually, my service seems to work pretty good, fast enough and reliable (mostly, usually, pretty much). I don't understand that foreign language you used in your post #9 -- all Greek to me!

[woodsmoke]

NO...NO...NO...NO...

NICKSTONE...you are one of "the good uns' "...

NO...NO...NO

[GreyGeek]

Nick.
Being served an even more compressed V.92 Modem technology at a Tier III (ADSL2) bit rate of 1.4M/s would make me quit too. That speed over a phone line is typical of rural villages and farms connected by a copper phone line and less than 16,000 feet from the "head", the last amplifier on the line before reaching the customer.