Last Call

Outro

Hi there,

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: https://www.timespentoffline.store/

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…

Have a wonderful rest of the year, happy holidays, cheers to the happiest new year ahead of us, and

See you in hell,