This is my last post/email here. Before I go,

One last thing:

The internet is rotting your brain: Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid.

You know it.

Everyone knows it.

And yet, everyone is here Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid.

I don’t feel inclined to lecture people in real life whenever they lament about how terrible the internet is, what it’s doing to their relationship, mental health, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... I just smile and nod, happy to no longer know of such unpleasant living.

Blissfully Excited, Connected, Delighted, and Sufficiently Knowledgeable in my wonderful, tiny, lively, lovely reality— No avatars, no internet connection required.

But since you are here reading time spent offline and in case you haven’t gotten the message yet, and since this is the last time I will ever say it to you here, YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ON THE INTERNET AT ALL.

Ever.

You don’t have to be here at all.

And I really wish I realized this almost a decade ago when I deleted social media and began my time spent offline journey in earnest.

I really wish.

I wasted a lot of time Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid, even after I deleted social media because I was too afraid to be away from the avatars and the digital noise; and reality scared me. Having spent most of my youth on the internet, with hundreds of thousands of avatars shouting their grievances at me all day long, day after day, I freaked out when all that remained when I unplugged was the calm, quiet, peaceful moments of reality for the taking. My brain couldn’t handle it and I kept running back to my NetPacifier, until I have had enough.

But I really wish I knew then.

Life is so amazing offline that I sometimes feel I must be transgressing a social contract that requires everyone to be online miserably while I stroll and troll in real life happily. I mean, if it is so bad here, why doesn’t everyone get off the internet too?

I did it.

It’s amazing.

Is someone holding a gun to your head?

IS THERE A SOCAL CONTRACT, A MEMO, THAT DIDN’T GET DELIVERED TO ME???? Am I under threat for not being online???

And part of why I continued writing here long after I stopped needing to, for my own sake and encouragement, was to let you know too— Because it really shocked and delighted me— how much better life truly is when you unplug and get offline.

But you already know that.

Everyone knows it.

And yet, everyone is here Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid.

Of course, as is the case with most everything else, everyone is afraid to be the first one, in your family, work place, friend circle, to not have social media, to not know who said what on Twitter last night.

The thing is, nobody cares.

It is perfectly fine to not know, to say, “Oh, I don’t know” and everyone is more than happy to explain the thing to you. This is what you learn when you exchange the avatars for people in real life; People are generally good, kind, generous, and willing to help you out IRL: For the most part, most of the time. Without the screen dividing us, humans are more… human and it is the most beautiful thing I know.

And of course, from the beginning, I wished there was a way to write to you to share my time spent offline journey offline, without the screens. But as you know, social media Substack is easy, real life is hard and so I kept sending you email week after week after week, until I finally figured out what a delightful (not easy, but delightful) process it is to create and share content offline.

Still a wonderful possibility.

Can you believe it?

Posting on the internet isn’t the only means to create, share, consume content with/from each other.

time spent offline is now a monthly analog publication you can get delivered straight to your mailbox with 20 ideas every month.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU ALL who subscribed for supporting the analog publication from the bottom of my heart, like for real. I am so beyond excited to create and share the newsletter with you offline and I hope you are just as excited to enjoy time spent offline offline moving forward.

You can also purchase the zines to support time spent offline going analog

Purchase Zine

And guess what?

Now, I *really* DON’T HAVE TO BE ON THE INTERNET AT ALL.

Literally, at all.

I don’t know much but I do know,

⁷ Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you:

⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

— Matthew 7:7-8

With all that said…

See you in hell,

This Substack is no longer being updated. If you enjoyed the content here, you might like OFFLINE, a printed zine with more ideas to unplug, delivered straight to your mailbox.

OFFLINE Zine

Hi there,

You can fake the living but you can’t fake the feeling.

Please read carefully:

• time spent offline is now a monthly analog publication you can get delivered straight to your mailbox with 20 ideas every month: “Same thing as before, only different.” Instead of sending you five things every week on Substack via email, I will be sending you twenty things every month on paper via mail.

• First issue will be mailed out in January 2025, and every month thereafter.

• If your mailing address is in Canada or the US, you can subscribe to time spent offline the analog publication for $9.95USD monthly. If your mailing address is elsewhere in the world, it will be $14.95USD monthly. (With +$5USD for shipping)

***You must manually put the $ amount based on your mailing location.***

• No refunds accepted. You may cancel your subscription at any time.

• You can purchase Zine #1: OFFLINE to get a general idea of what to expect from the analog publication.

• I will mail out the analog publication on the first Tuesday of every month, for old times sake, but also this will ensure you will get your copy within the month no matter where you are located in the world. Shipping usually takes anywhere between 3 to 15 business days. If you still have not received your copy by the last Tuesday of the month, please contact me at mehretbiruk@gmail.com. The shipping option for the analog publication does not include a tracking number.

• Any other inquires, comments, grievances, please mail me so I know it’s real:

  • Mehret Biruk, PO BOX 84593, TORONTO, ON M6S 4Z7 CANADA

• IMPORTANT: If you subscribe to time spent offline the analog publication *this* month, you will get your first copy in the mail starting the *next* month. If you subscribe in December, you will get January’s issue, if you subscribe in January, February’s issue, etc. Pre-order style.

• If you don’t want to subscribe month to month but still want to get the occasional analog copy of time spent offline, the only way to get it is still to subscribe and pause your subscription for whenever, unpause whenever, before your billing cycle.

• Lastly, I am not a retailer, and you are not my customer. I’m just a low-tech girl living in a high-tech world, and having an amazing time offline. Thought I’d tell you all about it.

• You’ll always be my reader. <3 I write to feel less alone, and in reading I hope you feel less alone on this journey too.

• Now happening OFFLINE!!!!

P.s. My friend Annie recently sent me this, inside a Muji store in Toronto, and I said to her, Who am I going to shamelessly flirt with while the machine makes my drink!? 🥹 It’s a cruel, cruel world. 
But also, 0:15. 

Oh, and one last Substack email remaining…

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

This Substack is no longer being updated. If you enjoyed the content here, you might like OFFLINE, a printed zine with more ideas to unplug, delivered straight to your mailbox.

OFFLINE Zine

Hi there,

For real this time.

And I’ve been on the internet and posting since 2007. That is almost two decades now. I was thirteen then and today I’m thirty years old.

In 2007, at thirteen, I have just moved to Canada from Ethiopia and everything was new: The language, the people, the food, and most exciting of all, the internet.

One of my favourite memories of getting on the internet at thirteen in 2007 is trying to figure out why it was cool for my peers to post photos of themselves at the Apple Store on Facebook. I couldn’t understand for the life of me why Canadian teens found the fruit market the cool spot to pose for photos and share it online for everyone to see, or why I couldn’t see any fruits or vegetables in the background.

I did figure it out eventually.

Apple Store wasn’t a fruit market but a store that sold phones and computers and anyone could go in there and take photos on their fancy laptops by clicking on the Photo Booth app.

Do you remember that?

So much can change in a lifetime, can you believe it?

The only lasting truth Is Change.

And at thirty, as you might be able to tell, I have become very familiar with the language, the people, the internet, and even the store that’s named after a fruit that sells computers and smartphones. In fact, I exclusively use their products and have done so for almost as long as I have been on the internet.

Alas.

And I wonder now, I am so curious, Is it still possible to create content and share ideas with people without the aid of the internet?

Sure, you will place your order and I will process orders using an online platform, with a wifi connection, but can we keep the message, the messenger, the congregation off of the internet?

Isn’t it so exciting to try something new? Or rather, try something old again. Something they say is not possible anymore.

So far it has turned out to be a lie.

To celebrate, and because winning is fun,

time spent offline is now a monthly analog publication delivered straight to your mailbox.

“Same thing as usual, only different.”

Created using analog tools, each issue includes 20 ideas, tips, and tricks for nurturing a fun, cool, insanely enjoyable life offline in a digitally caffeinated world. Think of it as AA for the internet-holic. Or you're just tired of scrolling your life away on the internet.

Monthly Subscription:

$9.95 USD
Free shipping to Canada & US
Everywhere Else +$5 USD for Shipping ($14.95 USD total)
You must manually enter the $ amount based on your mailing location.

No refund. You may cancel your subscription at any time.

*** First issue mailed January 2025 ***

Subscribe

I'll have a FAQ next week, if you have any questions, leave a comment below or email me at mehretbiruk@gmail.com

P.s. Two more Substack emails remaining… Get in loser! ❤️

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

This Substack is no longer being updated. If you enjoyed the content here, you might like OFFLINE, a printed zine with more ideas to unplug, delivered straight to your mailbox.

OFFLINE Zine

Hi there,

In December, time spent offline turns four. I have lived plenty lives since I began writing to you here. So much has come and gone, I can barely catch my breath thinking of it all, and yet, something kept bringing me back to this tiny corner of the internet every week, week after week, after week. I do not know much but I do know life gives you exactly what you ask for. Nothing more, nothing less. So, ask carefully, my friends. May all your dreams come true. It is the best feeling I know of.

From the beginning:

2020

• “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
  — Herbert A. Simon

• Read a book instead

2021

• Laugh or log off

• Demons hate fresh air

• “The problem is not that the truth is harsh but that liberation from ignorance is as painful as being born. Run after truth until you are breathless. Accept the pain involved in re-creating yourself afresh. These ideas will take a life to comprehend, a hard one interspersed with drunken moments.”
  — Naguib Mahfouz

• A boring iPhone is still a very useful phone

• Demonizing the tool(s) is scapegoating

• Spotify and the paradox of choice: How a culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction

• Should you delete social media? That's the wrong question

• When someone is wrong on the internet

• 🤭

  

2022

• Why I Am not Going To Buy A Computer

• Kill your phone

• Willpower is for losers

• In praise of doing (absolutely) nothing

• “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

  — Henry Miller

• If you could connect your computer to a vast network of information, how would you use this service?

  a) Gather valuable scientific information.

  b) Improve your education.

  c) Demonstrate your complete lack of personality by spending countless hours typing inane and often obscene sentence fragments that can be viewed by people just like you in “real time.”

• The best advice is always the simplest (not easy, but simple): Get a life.

• Apps won't cure your loneliness. Or, why people are good for you (Sorry, social media followers don't count.)

• “Easy decisions, hard life. Hard decisions, easy life.”

  — Jerzy Gregorek

2023

• In every person there are two wolves who are always at war with each other. One is evil, the second one is good. Which wolf wins?

• “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

  — Romans 12:2

• What is social media for?

• situation (spaaaaaaaaaaace) reaction

• The Internet Is Rotting

• Internet vs “internet,” and non-internet things

• “INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIVING A LIFE: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

  — Mary Oliver

• ♡

  

• If social media didn't exist

• The best of both worlds

• So, Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

• We're not the crazy ones here

• IRL > URL

2024

• If you can’t win and you don’t want to lose (of course) you can always play the victim.

• save.your.tears foranotherday

• Being a loser is hard work

  

• How to get started with offline living when you have no friends, a dysfunctional family, and live in an antisocial city

• There are no solutions, only trade-offs

• Befriending Yourself (is Sacred Work)

• “The Self is the friend of a man who masters himself through the Self, but for a man without self-mastery, the Self is like an enemy at war.”

  ― The Bhagavad Gita, India

• My body can’t poop without my phone anymore

• How The Fuck Is Screen-Free Evening Impossible? Just Walk Away From The Screen. Close Your Eyes.

• You can have your cake and eat it too

• (quality) time spent alone

• Ex(o)(e)rcise your demons

• Starting and ending your days offline

• That's all there is to it

You can find the full archive here: https://mehretbiruk.substack.com/archive

And the blog, https://mehretbiruk.com/archive/

So, please do not say I didn’t give you enough on these digital streets when I take time spent offline offline beginning January 2025. An analog publication delivered straight to your mailbox every month with 20 ideas. The only lasting truth Is Change— But you already knew that.

P.s.

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

This Substack is no longer being updated. If you enjoyed the content here, you might like OFFLINE, a printed zine with more ideas to unplug, delivered straight to your mailbox.

OFFLINE Zine

And then I fell in love
With the most wonderful boy in the world
We'd take long walks down by the river or
Just sit for hours gazing into each other's eyes
We were so very much in love

And then one day
He went away
And I thought I'd die, but I didn't
And when I didn't
I said to myself
Is that all there is to love?

Is that all there is
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is, my friends
Then let's keep

And that’s all there is to a life unplugged as well, my friends— Then let's keep dancing/ Let's break out the booze/ And have a ball

If that’s all there is…

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

This Substack is no longer being updated. If you enjoyed the content here, you might like OFFLINE, a printed zine with more ideas to unplug, delivered straight to your mailbox. 

OFFLINE Zine

Hi there,

time spent offline is really a weekly rant of a 30-year-old unplugged and unmedicated modern woman living her best life in a place called Toronto, Canada. Everything is contextual, and relative. Your mileage may vary. Feel free to break the rules. Make the life you want.

Five things to share:

1. Life is not rocket science, it really doesn’t take a genius. By a rough estimation based solely on my own lived experience and precise feminine intuition, you can solve about 72 to 82 per cent of your current life problems by going offline. Just Walk Away From The Screen. Close Your Eyes. No social media, no waking up to the news, no scrolling to sleep. Life is truly amazing unplugged. This might be the best kept secret of our times; You really don’t need any of the digital noise- None!– to live a perfectly balanced, enjoyable, exciting life. In: Unplugged & Unmedicated

2. You alone are responsible for what happens to you.

   

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.

   — Toni Morrison

   When I first saw this quote, I knew and loved it immediately. I wrote it often in my journals; in the margins of my weekly calendar spreads; in my many, many lists of Note to Self about life. But it’d take me many, many more years to finally understand the truth of the matter, If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. And that’s the thing about life, it doesn’t take a genius— everybody knows— but only you can go on the journey, do the work, the unbearable uncovering of the truth that’s been bugging you this whole time, until one day you finally understand, If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.

4. So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute.

5. A challenge for you: Unplug. Just Walk Away From The Screen. Close Your Eyes.

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

Thanks to time spent offline, going to sleep and waking up are the two best parts of my days. And once you get that figured out, the in-between is a piece of cake.

Five things to share:

1. In the beginning, there is silence— If you let it be so.

   There is also the noise, just as readily available: With a tap, a click, a scroll. This is a very recent development in the history of human civilization, to wake up with the whole world in your bed. Back then, I used to choose the noise too: Wake up to the news, the tweets, the notifications, the avatars. And they would all tell me, they would all say first thing in the morning, what was wrong with the world, with me, with the day to come. Such noise dampens the spirit, weighs you down first thing in the morning; holds you hostage to the mattress, to the phone. You scroll more to escape the terror of waking up to all that is wrong with you, with the world, with the day to come.

   There is also silence just as readily available if you let it be so: Quiet, calm, peaceful mornings spent offline.

2. Once you have managed a good morning, and a wonderful day filled with ordinary delights, it becomes far easier to manage an unplugged evening. The desire to escape the terror of the day lessens with each passing day spent in the calm, quiet mornings pouring over your journal seeking truth; late afternoons spent noticing birds flying freely, children playing delightfully. It is far easier to manage an unplugged evening knowing tomorrow, when the day comes, it will bring with it another chance to play with truth in the quiet, calm, peaceful morning; another chance to notice love unfolding, trees swaying to the sound of the wind, time spent in good company laughing, knowing.

   In: Unplugged Evenings

3. The French say, "Pour vivre contente, vivons caches."

   (Translated: To live happily, live hidden.)

   ♡

4. https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/linchpin-are-you-indispensable/9781591844099.html

   

5. A challenge for you: Start and end your days offline.

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and please share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

This Substack is no longer being updated. If you enjoyed the content here, you might like OFFLINE, a printed zine with more ideas to unplug, delivered straight to your mailbox.

OFFLINE Zine

Hi there,

I’m not a writer. Nor a retailer. I’m just a low-tech girl living in a high-tech world, and having lots of fun offline. Thought I would tell you about it. Once you decide, having it is easy.

Five things to share:

1. What do you get from a pampered cow? reads the back of my phone, typed on a piece of paper— Spoiled milk. It is a keepsake from last Easter where my friend invited me to her Bermudian Easter celebration flying kites. It was a perfect day spent with beautiful people, a chilly spring day at the park where we met, the sun playing hide and seek as my friend flew her kite. We got tipsy off of cheap wine, munched on strawberries, chips, and chocolate, and cackled at stories of past and future while smoking copious amount of cigarettes. Once we have had enough of the cold, we raced up the hill trying to beat each other to the top. We ate cheap food at a diner, then found a playground where my friend hid fillable easter eggs around the park and we ran around screaming like children trying to beat each other to finding the Easter eggs. Find we did, and in one of my easter eggs typed on a piece of paper was, What do you get from a pampered cow? Spoiled milk— I chuckle and shove it in my jacket pocket with the rest of the eggs I found. Afterwards, we go over to my friend’s place, staying up way past midnight dreaming of worlds upon worlds and watching trash reality TV. On my Uber ride home past 3 in the morning, the streets of Toronto eerily quiet like it never sees daylight or humans, I understand life perfectly then: It matters just as much to surrender to the simple, everyday, wonderful, beautiful delights of being alive. What do you get from a pampered cow? Spoiled milk. The next day, I place the piece of paper inside the back of my clear phone case, where I can see it daily and remember to surrender to the simple, everyday, wonderful, beautiful, childlike delights of being alive. It makes me smile to this day.

   

2. And the idea for the time spent offline mug came to me while contemplating the best way to create a daily reminder of time spent offline for you. Something physical, something you can look at daily and think, Oh yeah, I want to be offline doing cool shit instead of online reading another loser telling me what and how to think — I’m talking about myself here, either way. So I thought a mug was the perfect thing since reading a book with a cup of tea is like the quintessential time spent offline activity everyone thinks of when they think about spending time away from the devices. I personally prefer coffee and gin, and not usually at the same time, and I don’t use my time spent offline mug to drink coffee from usually either. Instead, I keep all my writing utensils in it and it sits on my desk reminding me daily why I choose to do anything else but scroll my life away on the internet. I see it on my desk daily, day after day: time spent offline, time spent offline, time spent offline. A mantra if you will. And once you decide, having it is easy. https://www.timespentoffline.store/product/mug

   USD$29.95

   Ships free to Canada and U.S. with full tracking information! (Shipping cost in Canada is criminal, it won’t make sense to ship a mug anywhere else— Sooorry!)

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   Place little good perfect things around you…! Their golden ripeness heals the heart. What is perfect teaches hope.

   — Friedrich Nietzsche 

4. https://sive.rs/dc

   

5. A challenge for you: Place little good perfect things around you…!

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

Sorry I missed you last week. I was going to send you Email to Delete but then I got curious about how it would feel to not post online after so many Tuesdays spent adding noise to the noise machine; Ahhhhh-mazing! It is the best feeling I know of— time spent offline. You can just… have whatever you like, it’s amazing.

Five things to share:

1. Leaving social media is like leaving a toxic relationship you thought you couldn’t live without

2. A reminder…

   

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.

   — Christopher Morley

   Ahhhhh-mazing!

4. Avoid News

   Information is no longer a scarce commodity. But attention is. Why give it away so easily? You are not that irresponsible with your money, your reputation or your health. Why give away your mind?

5. A challenge for you: Before diving into the news or scrolling through feeds, ask: “Will this still matter next year?” If not, it’s probably mental junk food. (Source)

P.s. Ewwww!

Alternatively,

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

I have fully outgrown the internet; Once you decide, having it is easy.

Five things to share:

1. Social media is for losers.

2. Winning is fun! (Being a loser is hard work)

   $9.95
   Free shipping to Canada and U.S.
   $5 shipping everywhere else.

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   All that you touch

   You Change.

   All that you Change

   Changes you.

   The only lasting truth

   Is Change.

   God

   Is Change.

   — Parable of the Sower/ Octavia E. Butler

   Also a book recommendation, so good!

4. Vanity Fair Magazine October 2010

   

5. A challenge for you: Delete social media. Why live vicariously through me when you can have it yourself? You can have whatever you like.

With that being said…

In December, time spent offline will turn 4! And I am so excited— So, so, so excited— to announce, and please be pleased too, I will be phasing out time spent offline the Substack newsletter and taking it completely offline as an analog publication. THIS ISN’T GOODBYE, it’s a celebration! I am having so much fun offline, and I am curious, as I was when I deleted social media, made my smartphone a dumb phone, began writing here to share my journey: Is it still possible to create, connect, live fully offline? I must follow that curiosity. If it were a choice, but it’s not. There’s still about 12 more of what you know, what you like to come— Maybe one more Email to Delete too. After that you can get time spent offline delivered straight to your mailbox with 20 ideas every month: https://timespentoffline.bigcartel.com

The only lasting truth Is Change.

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

It doesn’t take a genius to get off social media, get a flip phone, and become a self-proclaimed digital minimalist.

I have done it too. It’s the easiest part, really.

Then, what?

And this is the best, most fun part. The unknown, the uncharted territory, the adventure of a lifetime waiting for you to choose it. Because once you decide, having it is easy.

The best kept secret of our current times is that, and I had to go on my own journey to find out, it is that you can live, and live very well, have lots of fun, feel amazing without much of the digital taking up space in your life.

In fact, I am certain I live well because I’m mostly offline. It doesn’t take a genius to live well, have lots of fun, feel amazing either, just your decision. Because once you decide, having it is easy.

With that said…

Zine #2: How to have fun offline
$9.95
Free shipping to Canada and U.S.
$5 shipping everywhere else

A zine is a self-published magazine. Idiosyncratic nature. 
Foster community, educate, have fun. 
Some theft involved. 
“It’s either writing a zine or yelling in a street corner.”

CONTENTS
~ Intro/ Decide
~ Laugh or LOG OFF!
~ Be a part of something(s)
~ SOLITUDE (Diary of a hungry adult)
~ A person; A lot like you
~ 5 to 9
~ Would you like to join me?
~ Borrow a child
~ Winning is fun! (Being a loser is hard work)
~ A PLEDGE
~ 30-Day Challenge
~ MAIL FOR JOY
~ Public Service Announcement
~ FREE ADVICE (mail me so I know it's real)
~ Outro/ Desiderata

When you purchase time spent offline, the zine, which I created completely offline, you support my writing here and there, of course, so thank you a bunch. But most importantly, you support the idea that it is still possible to create, connect, and share, and live, offline. 

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

When people give you advice, they’re talking about themselves. You decide what’s best for you.

Five things to share:

1. time spent offline isn’t for everyone.

   In fact, it is for a very select few with a large appetite for life.

   It takes a large appetite to decide to go against the grain, the status quo, what they say is just life now, you know, and say, no, thank you.

   It takes a large, large, large, large, appetite to wake up every day and decide— yes, YOU decide, what to think, what to do, how to feel. There are no tweets, feeds, notifications dinging at you, nudging you towards what you should think, feel, do each moment; you must decide at the crack of dawn, in the middle of the day waiting for your sushi order, at night when sleep evades you. It's just you, really.

   It takes a large appetite for life to go on looking for love, connection, community Without a follow/ Without a mention— Trusting life just a little.

   Just so you are sure, sweetheart.

2. Be special ♡

   

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   It's dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you're feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig.

   Lightly, lightly – it's the best advice ever given me... So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly.

   — Aldous Huxley (Source)

4. Quitting the Internet with David Yoon

   In a world where we spend so much of time online, Sunday Times bestselling author David Yoon writes about why he gave up social media and the internet and what happened next…

5. A challenge for you: Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.

Before you go…

When you purchase the time spent offline zine, which I created completely offline, you support my writing here and there, of course, so thank you. But most importantly, you support the idea that it is still possible to create, connect, and share, and live, offline. I’m probably wasting my life trying to make a point against Big Data but so far it has been such a wonderful journey and to borrow wise words from my 14-year-old niece, I can’t help it. Also, I’m keeping all the mistakes in the zine (see below) because that’s just real life, darling. There is no Delete/Backspace option in real life, best to accept your losses and keep it moving.

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

When I first saw the poem pictured above on the subway ride home, with beautiful flowers I bought myself, something in me got completely, wholly freed; I love love. And I decided right there and then from that moment forward, I am always either in love, or in the pursuit of love; by any means necessary, by all means necessary.

Five things to share: 

1. “So,” she says with anticipation and playful smile, and I’m so used to this question, exacerbated, I respond on autopilot, It's so hard to meet men! “What?!” She says as she looks around, “But men are everywhere.” It’s a beautiful summer evening and we’re seated on a patio in the bustling St. Lawerence Market neighbourhood downtown enjoying a glass of wine. I look around and men are everywhere. “And you have the dating apps now,” she continues, “Are you on that?” When she was my age, three decades earlier, there were no apps, no social media, nothing but IRL to meet men, all kinds of men. I clasp my hands and cackle with delight; shaking my head for not realizing this simple fact of life all the times I sat around complaining about how hard it is to meet men, and men are everywhere: Online and offline. I say all that to say, Hinge is what you make it, dating is fun, and love is our greatest pursuit.

2. Social media is to connection what porn is to sex; ideally, you wanna fuck.

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   Courage is knowing it might hurt, and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that's why life is hard.

   — Jeremy Goldberg 

4. (empty space to skip, enjoy)

5. A question for you: If you don’t have someone you love, why aren’t you looking? And if you’ve found someone to love, why aren’t you dancing for joy? 

You can now get time spent offline, the zine, delivered right to your mailbox!

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

My name is Mehret Biruk and I am a recovering internet addict of escaping myself.

Five things to share:

1. Growing up was easy. By 15, I bury the child, declare independence— to no one in particular, and I split. I ran for thirteen years: In circles, up and down, back and forth; sideways. There were the men, the drugs, alcohol, of course, and when I got scared of the chaos, the vultures, there was the career, the marriage, and, and, and of course, my most cherished escape of all time, of all, the internet; The perfect, low-consequential numbing agent. And whenever I dared to slow down, put down the phone, catch my breath, there was that dreadful sensation of drowning— Buried alive— and so I’d keep on scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Until one day, after one too many tequila shots, I look in the mirror and the child, buried but still alive, looks me dead on and says, Let me out or I’m taking you down with me. And I understand then; Buried alive: drowning, drowning, drowning. By 28, I abandon the adult, declare custody of my inner child— to myself in particular, and I surrender.

   The Wo(Man) in the Mirror.

2. Dealing with failure (You hungry.)

   

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   For what it’s worth, it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be . . . I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

   —F. Scott Fitzgerald

   Let the possibilities shock and delight you.

4. Three books that have helped me:

   • In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Dr. Gabor Maté

   • Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley

   • Sisters Of The Yam by bell hooks

5. A challenge for you: You; Sitting with Yourself

   And if you think healing is hard work, it is, then look around you at all the living dead and choose your hard very, very carefully.

   ---

P.s. Thank you so, so, so much, from the bottom of my heart, for all the love you showed for the time spent offline zine! This is truly a love, care, joyful journey, and it delights me to share it with you… Offline! 

Also, also, I stole the address stamp idea from Austin Kleon’s recent Substack post and when I saw it, I immediately got on the train to my fav stationery store, then headed to the print shop to order more copies of the zine, then to an antique shop to get more postcards— The owner remembered me from a year ago and gave me chocolate; and while waiting in line at the post office, a guy was flabbergasted about having to pay $26 to mail a letter (Canada, eh?) and I consoled him it’s happened to me too, and he told me he once had to pay $80 to mail *this small* box to Poland, “for that price I could have booked a flight there and dropped it off myself.” People are so funny!!!! IRL > URL ♡

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

One thing… again. Sorry!

But I am so, so beyond excited to finally make it happen and share with you that you can now get time spent offline in a zine format delivered right to your mailbox with 20 ideas for living (mostly) offline in a digitally-caffeinated world!!!

A zine is a self-published magazine. Idiosyncratic nature. Foster community, educate, have fun. Some theft involved. “It’s either writing a zine or yelling in a street corner.”

If you love it here, you will love time spent offline the zine.

New issue available the first Tuesday of every month!

No digital tools, algorithms, websites have been used in the creation of this zine. From my brain to paper, to typewriter, to a local print shop; and to you via Big Cartel (Well, you can’t win every time.) Still, the analog functions perfectly well, and as you know I like to do things just to prove a point.

And just because You and I can.

I am truly delighted to finally write to you offline, a true dream come true, and I hope you enjoy it just as much.

$9.95 + Free shipping!

P.s. Coming in next issue: Borrow A Child…

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

One thing.

When I was in high school, I used to get sent to the principle’s office regularly for wearing inappropriate clothes; Shorts and skirts that made the male teachers uncomfortable, the women seethe— Just kidding! but otherwise I was a good, fairly smart, and engaged student in one of the worst high schools in the city at the time.

This time, the principle was new; new to the chaos, of children that had to grow up too fast, too angry, and so when he pulled out the school agenda to reason with me, that according to the dress code, standing with my hands flat to my thighs, my skirt would have to be past my middle fingers, which the one I was wearing wasn’t, I accepted the challenge.

The adults were rookies to me.

That night, I went home, pulled out a grey men’s shirt I had thrifted, cut it into a crop-top and wrote on it with a sharpie, MADE IN VAGINA. It was inspired by a photo I saw on Tumblr; made in pussy sprawled across a hoodie or a hat. I wore my improvisation the next day with my American Apparel high-wasted pants.

I was sent to the principle’s office immediately.

He said I couldn’t wear that at school. I said, according to the school agenda with the rules, I could. There are no swear words, I reasoned. I’m just expressing myself, I told him.

He sighed, exhausted from the chaos, of unruly children roaming the halls, and told me although we all want to express ourselves, to be ourselves, that in order to function in society, to stay out of trouble, we have to conform, we have to fit in, and of course, although I wasn’t breaking any rules, I couldn’t fit in with a t-shirt that said MADE IN VAGINA.

Fine.

I have made my point, and honestly I pitied him, so it was easy to let him have it. I wore the shirt inside out for the rest of the day.

And I was beginning to think maybe he was right, and although the adults bored me, I thought maybe he had a point. And maybe if I didn’t want to get stuck in the chaos— Unruly child turned unruly adult— I should try to conform, to fit in. I was considering it seriously: I promise, Mom.

But a few weeks later, in an auditorium full of students, teachers, and other school staff for our end-of-school-year assembly, the same principle got on stage and said into the microphone, passionately, that although the world wants to box us in, make us conform and fit in, we should always strive to be ourselves, authentic, original…

And in the dark auditorium looking out into a sea of heads was a 17-year-old girl smirking at the man standing on the podium with the spotlight on him: She was elated to finally get the confirmation for an inkling she hasn’t been able to shake off her entire life— That the adults were full of shit. Not worth listening to, unless she liked being lied to, least she wanted to end up like the adult on stage with the spotlight on; believing one thing, saying another.

She pitied him.

And at 17, Mehret was reborn.

And recently, when she says over the phone, slightly exacerbated after ten years of constantly cheering me on, that I’m not the 17-year-old girl stuck in Jungle*, in the chaos, I smirk into the phone because although it is nice to be reminded I am no longer there, I am still the 17-year-old-girl-turned-woman who refuses to be told how to live her life; refuses to fit in, to conform.

It’s just that now instead of writing MADE IN VAGINA on thrifted shirts to make a point, to mock the adults, I write time spent offline to make a point, to mock Silicon Valley. I don’t know about you but I don’t need social media; I haven’t needed it since 2017. In fact, I never needed it, but whatever.

I don’t need a smartphone.

I don’t need to follow the news.

I don’t need Spotify.

I don’t need LinkedIn.

I don’t need Amazon.

I don’t need Silicon Valley apps to live my life.

I don’t need the digital slop to fit in, to conform.

In fact, the principle did tell the truth, although he didn’t believe it himself, on that podium on that day in 2012 with the spotlight on him: I don’t need to box myself in, to fit in, to conform.

Unruly child turned unruly adult.

In my own way.

Elated.

To borrow wise words from Aubrey Drake— YEAH YEAH WE KNOW**— You can be whoever you want/ Even yourself.

I know you understand.

♡

Until next time,

Mehret

*Jungle is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada

**

Hi there,

It’s like the saying, Money can’t buy happiness, but I’d rather cry in a Ferrari.

Five things to share:

1. I got into fitness in 2017 after I got off social media and I couldn’t stomach another evening spent scrolling through the avatars on Reddit, and so when I found a fitness studio that gave free monthly membership in exchange for working the front desk and cleaning up the studio for four hours a week, I joined. I had no money, plenty of time to spare, and feeling isolated without my friends Twitter followers, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to pass the time, and it didn’t hurt to be around people too. It took until 2021 to find my rhythm, to not stop over every and any excuse, and now working out is as routine as brushing my teeth, or taking a shower. And let me tell you, when my demons show up uninvited, in the middle of the day taunting me with how I ain’t all that and a bag of chips, I grab my stuff and head to the gym, and I think, if I can afford a gym membership, the time to work out, the physical ability to lift, pull, push, and jump, then how bad can it really be, huh? And just out of spite, I work out harder on those days; heavier, faster, so focused until I lose touch with reality— Sweat those demons out. Here is what I have learned: Your mind is the first thing to give up, then the spirit follows, but if you keep going, just keep going, darling, your body, the body can go on for far, far longer than you think is possible. And after, before I get in the shower, I look in the mirror and I love what I see, who I have become in choosing to exercise to exorcise over scrolling to repress; Even the demons approve— They smile, they respect the woman who shows up day after day, after day after day after day to face them, to taunt them back with her victory.

   My attention is reserved for...

2. 

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   No matter what time you get out of bed, go for a walk and then work, because the demons hate it when you get out of bed, demons hate fresh air.

   — Ingmar Bergman (Source)

   Demons hate fresh air

4. Embracing Sub-Optimal Relationships

5. A question for you:

   

   (If you don’t have someone you love, why aren’t you looking?

   And if you’ve found someone to love, why aren’t you dancing for joy?

   And if your companion doesn’t suit you, why don’t you become them?

   And if the lute won’t cry out, why aren’t you teaching it the proper way?)

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. It’s not that you don’t know, it is that you don’t do. 

Five things to share:

1. 100 ways to spend more time offline

2. Guys, remember that time when you were 24 and you were on the subway, and you saw that girl  with the glasses reading a book wearing a black leather coat, and you were obsessing over whether to go up to her or not but then your stop came, and you were like, screw it, she'll probably mace me, so you got off and went to the library to study for your chem exam?

   You chose wrong.

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   Don’t just do something. Stand there.

   — Rochelle Myer

4. Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity

   Book by Byung-Chul Han

   In our busy and hurried lives, we are losing the ability to be inactive. Human existence becomes fully absorbed by activity – even leisure, treated as a respite from work, becomes part of the same logic. Intense life today means first of all more performance or more consumption. We have forgotten that it is precisely inactivity, which does not produce anything, that represents an intense and radiant form of life.

   A HUGE thanks to Talia from ART LIFE BALANCE for recommending this book. I am a tad bit better than I was before after reading it— Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

5. A challenge for you: You; Sitting with Yourself. Ask: Why am I so afraid of This moment?

P.s.

there are worse things than
being Alone
but it often takes decades
to realize this
and most often
when you do
it's too late
and there's nothing worse
than
too late.

— Charles Bukowski

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret

Hi there,

I don’t tell you anything I don’t tell myself; Stop being a loser.

Five things to share:

1. When I was around 27, I understood, and I understood wholeheartedly a quote I once saw on the internet a few years prior; You don’t get the life you want, you get the life you deserve. And I looked around at my life then and I simply understood, I cackled: I have gotten exactly the life I deserve although I didn’t want any of it. And it was a good life, a beautiful life even— It’s just that, you see, it was a life I chose because I was a loser. Because I didn’t think I could have, or that I could make possible for myself the life I actually wanted, and so I settled for a good life, a beautiful life even, though I wanted nothing to do with it, it nothing to do with me. And to escape the terror of living in the wrong life— Caged, gasping, suffocating— I ran to the internet. And because I didn’t do anything to make the life I really wanted happen, because I was too lazy, scared, comfortably miserable, because all I did was scroll to escape the terror of living the wrong life, but nothing to escape the wrong life itself, I got stuck in the life I deserved: The wrong life. In fact, it doesn’t matter what you say you want— Love— you get exactly what you deserve; random avatars shouting their grievances at you day after day, and that dent on your couch at that particular spot you love to be alone at. You have been warned, by your consciousness. I’m just here to tell you what I told myself; Stop being a loser.

2. A friend once said to me you can be wrong for the times, and whatever, I am right.

   Tommy Dixon

   the end of our extremely online era.

   I think we're at the precipice of a technological revolution. I think this whole smartphone scrolling, content consuming, prolific posting, all day everyday screen time, being extremely online thing is going to fade. It's an addiction, no doubt. It started out, like any addiction, for the newness and excitement and thrill. But now we're…

   Read more

   2 years ago · 1473 likes · 125 comments · Tommy Dixon

3. A quote I want to share with you:

   Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.

   — Kierkegaard

   Oh, you think you are so special with your misery. Cry, baby.

4. Note to self (summer 2022)

   

5. A challenge for you: Stop being a loser. Winning is fun, and your only opponent is You.

P.s. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. What you see(k), as you know, is seeking you. I’m just the messenger— Your truth personified. If you don’t already, you will understand some other time. 

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Share

Until next time,

Mehret