A Year Without The Internet

Paul Miller writes:

I was wrong.

One year ago I left the internet. I thought it was making me unproductive. I thought it lacked meaning. I thought it was “corrupting my soul.”

It’s a been a year now since I “surfed the web” or “checked my email” or “liked” anything with a figurative rather than literal thumbs up. I’ve managed to stay disconnected, just like I planned. I’m internet free.

And now I’m supposed to tell you how it solved all my problems. I’m supposed to be enlightened. I’m supposed to be more “real,” now. More perfect.

But instead it’s 8PM and I just woke up. I slept all day, woke with eight voicemails on my phone from friends and coworkers. I went to my coffee shop to consume dinner, the Knicks game, my two newspapers, and a copy of The New Yorker. And now I’m watching Toy Story while I glance occasionally at the blinking cursor in this text document, willing it to write itself, willing it to generate the epiphanies my life has failed to produce.

I didn’t want to meet this Paul at the tail end of my yearlong journey. Read more» (HT: Althouse)

    Post authored by:

  • R. Scott Clark
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    R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

    More by R. Scott Clark ›

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7 comments

  1. Paul Miller has written a fascinating series of “Offline” articles for that site. Readers here might not know that he confesses Christ.

  2. Interesting take and it was also interesting on how he should the benefits of it at first. However, he basically said since he was still lazy without internet why not be lazy with the internet again.

  3. “But at least I’ll be connected.”
    This is like e-ducation. Que commercial for WSCal.

    As when a vehicle goes so fast that the vehicle’s structural integrity is compromised, so too the human when communication is electronic. Change the standards for what communication (even friendship) is and you have a mess. Defaced, eviscerated, etc.

    These realities even makes me hesitant to post this comment online because it is fashioned by the same realities.

  4. Well, whadya know. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we take ourselves with us.

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