Could You Go a Day Without the INTERNET ?

Can you even remember a time before the Internet? Like, what did we even do for fun back then? With no IMs, no YouTube, no Insta—any years that you spent before the World Wide Web almost seem like the Dark Ages now. According to statistics, people between 18 and 36 spend an average of 10 hours a day (!) with Internet based media. Crazy right? But what would happen if you didn’t have access to your wifi or 3G for a full 24 hours? We got fashion designer Anand Bhushan to go cold turkey for a full day to see exactly how dependent we are. 

8:00am 

INTERNET OFF 

“Yes, I took up the challenged to go a day without the Internet—on a Sunday, of course. In hindsight, I can’t imagine seeing this task through on a weekday. So, I turned off my data services at 8am. That meant no WhatsApp, no Google, no Instagram, and no e-mails! At 9am, I finally read the newspaper, after years—I usually get all my news from Twitter or news websites.” 

 

 10:00am 

WHO’S BROWSING? 

“Thanks to no Internet, I didn’t get my daily dose of entertainment courtesy perezhilton. com and E!. At 10:02am, just two hours and two minutes since I dropped off the social media sphere, I began getting withdrawal symptoms. At 11am, I tried to look for a silver lining—Sundays are a low-traffic day on social media, so at least something is right.” 

 

 12:00pm 

CINEMA TO THE RESCUE! 

“At 12pm, I decided to watch a movie. Again, I had to do this the old-school way. I checked up the newspaper for show timings and since I couldn’t read reviews online (something I always do), I had to go with my instinct. Finally, told a friend to book tickets, since BookMyShow was off-limits. Phew!” 

 

 1:00pm 

DIRECTION-LESS 

“I went for lunch to a new place in Vasant Vihar. No Internet needed there, right? Wrong! I reach 45 minutes late because, well, no Google Maps. At lunch, I allowed myself to take the mandatory selfies and indulge in some #foodporn photography, but there’s no place to upload them (#Fail). Plus, my tickets were still not booked, so no movie to save me from my plight.” 

 

2:00pm

CLUELESS

 “At lunch, my friends were discussing something that had happened at Jawaharlal Nehru University. It sounded like a big deal, front-page news. Twitter had exploded and so had my patience levels. Because well, I had no idea what had happened since Twitter on my phone was sound asleep.” 

 

 7:00pm 

OVERLOAD

“WhatsApp hadn’t buzzed even once since morning, and it had been the most awkward day ever! No gossip. No silly forwards. I got home and decided to order in, but I literally couldn’t handle the human interaction that comes with ordering food over the phone. That’s it! I was ‘hangry’ and I finally gave in at 7:30pm and ordered through Zomato. Ping! There are 462 unread WhatsApp messages. Life is beautiful again.”