Today, I learned to live without Internet

Waking up this morning was weird. I grabbed my phone, wanted to check for some news on Twitter, WhatsApp, you name it. Full Wi-Fi. No internet connection.

Several retries later, still same result. After I went downstairs to check the Internet router. No Internet. Checking the splitter resulted in: No Internet.

Do I called my provider. Deutsche Telekom actually has a good reputation in customer service. At least they 're not as bad as the other internet providers. After spending some minutes in the waiting line and some more minutes, the first free available slot for a technician to come by is: next Friday. One week without internet. Hooray.

Okay, not really. It sucks. But on the other hand: I am kinda happy about the possibility to explore life without internet. I am forced to do so, yes. I did not choose it, yes. But I'm still a little bit thrilled about this possibility.

Instead of mindless surfing shopping websites, you would to do something else. Instead of watching YouTube, you would have to do something else. Instead of being absent minded with fluff, you would have to find a way to be absent minded with fluff you can touch, like books.

Frankly, this is just a mere fantasy. Instead of lonely surfing the Internet, I fantasize about being Super Dad, having the deepest relationship with my wife ever possible, my understanding of my career material exploding, learning to play the guitar and become fluent in Russian and Japanese within this week, just because of the lack of the internet. Reality will be different. But reality will be great, nevertheless. I just have to take it as it is.

So, now, after having spent my first internet-free afternoon for weeks, I'll create myself an awesome, super delicious Cappuccino and will continue reading a book of my choice.

You need less than you think to be happy. And you need less than you think to be thankful.

Spending More Time With Kids Yesterday and Spending Less Time On the Internet Today

So... Septermber, I planned to spend at least one hour a day with my kids.
That didn't work as expected: I did not spend that much time. I did not expect this to be a challenge. But it was.
But at least I tried to be more aware of the time I do spend time with them. And that was great.

It was great to get to know them a little more, like experience their thoughts. A great example of that:

My wife pointed my kids to see the full moon. And then my second son said, that he wants to touch the moon. And thus, he will use a very very very very ... ...very long ladder to achieve that goal. My oldest son said, that he will use a big rocket to get to the moon. And that he will put the moon into the trunk of that rocket. After that, both were debating, whether this rocket with the trunk has be bigger that our car or not.

Wonderful.

Spending time with kids is great. Even if it's short.
This month I will spend less than half an hour each day on the internet for private use.
But there are some problems, I already encountered:

It's not 1999 anymore, where you could clearly distinguish between being online or not: For being online, your computer had to be turned on and you had to dial the internet connection with the modem. If that successed, you were online (and you better use the connection, because you pay per minute). If not, or you closed the connection, you weren't.

Today, I even don't know whether I'm online: If my notebook has an active wi-fi connection, I'm technically online. Do I use it? I don't know. I don't know, whether my browser is upgrading in background, whether windows tries to download some updates, whether my smartphone (which is currently in my bedroom upstairs) is receiving some WhatsApp messages. Hard to decide.

I also struggle with the definition: private use. Is searching something for my friends private? Reading stuff online for educational purposes, which will affect my work quality at my job?

All I can say now, after four days of internet diet: I'm so much more aware how much my life relies upon the internet today. It's almost frightening.