Culture + Philosophy

No Internet — No Problem?

Can you really live without the net?

Imagine if you weren’t reading this. Imagine if Medium didn’t exist. What would you do? We all pretend to hate the internet, but most of us would be stuck without it. You read of people going on 24-hour internet detoxes. But why bother? It’s like not drinking for a day, then doubling-up the day after.

People excuse themselves by arguing they only use the internet ‘sparingly’ when ‘they absolutely need to’, like people only have a glass of sherry at Christmas. But that’s garbage. No one uses the internet sparingly these days. Some might use it less than others, just like one drunk might drink less than another. But we’re all hooked, we’re all drunks, there’s no getting away from it. A ‘liquor’ store on every street, every block, in every house, garden, bar, restaurant, airport, museum, library, school, and office, pumping out high-strength grain spirit data 24/7.

People say they’ve got no option. That they have to use the net, it’s part of their life, their job, their world. But that’s garbage as well. There are many authoritarian regimes around the world that make their subjects do all sorts of horrifying things. But I doubt there’s a regime on the planet that forces us to glare into our phones 24/7.

Just think about that when you slip your phone out of your pocket while waiting for the bus. You can resist. You don’t have to look. You can put it back. Look at the sky, or the trees, or the birds instead. It’s possible.

I recently met an English guy in my local town in France where I live. I asked him where he was going, and he told me he wasn’t sure. We got talking, and it turned out he’s been cycling around Europe for six years, surviving off the kindness of strangers. Or food left over at markets or from bakeries at the end of the day. Foraging for wild fruits, nuts, and roots. Sometimes he gets food from bins or finds seasonal work that feeds and shelters him. In the spring, summer and autumn, he sleeps outside in a tent, or in huts, or in hostels. In winter, he stays with friends who he’s met over the years.

You might jump to the conclusion that the guy’s a bum. Some dropout who’s lost his mind. On the contrary. He was one of the sharpest and healthiest guys I’ve ever met. A man who can easily cycle 150kms a day with a load. Do they do that at your local gym? Half-hour 150 km workouts on a loaded bicycle, hills included, only $170! — Sign up via the APP!

I offered to buy him a coffee and a cake, so I could learn more of his travels, as I admit, I was in awe of the guy. I’ve been on countless cycle tours myself, but always ended up back in the same place — home. What must it be like to keep going, to have no consequence, no worry, no fear? Have the courage to ditch everything and hit the road.

We chatted for a while in a café in the town square, before I asked him — stupidly — if he was writing a book or keeping a blog about his travels and experiences. He looked at me like I was an idiot: “Why would I want to do that?”

He explained that he doesn’t use the internet anymore. When he first set out on his Odyssey six years ago, he had a phone and a tablet, but when the tablet got stolen and the phone died, he didn’t replace them. He used internet cafés where they still existed, but after a while he stopped bothering altogether. And after that, he, in effect, disappeared from the face of the planet.

I could be cynical and say he was lying, and that at the moment I left him, he’d be posting a picture of the town square on Instagram and jumping in a van. But I doubt it. You can tell when people are lying because of the way they stand. Next time you think someone is bullshitting you, look at their feet. I’ll guarantee, they’ll be either twitching, twisting, circling, or tapping them.

Not this guy. No dancing here. This guy was attached to the stone slabs of the square like he had been there his entire life. Totally grounded, and yet able to get up and go at a moment’s notice. A true disciple of the road. A man who had acquired his mahogany tan, not by lying on a sunbed, but by cycling into a thousand sunsets.

I joked with him about what was harder: living on the road or living without the internet. He told me that once you remember how to live, nothing much really matters — especially the internet.

“Why would I want to post a photo on Instagram,” he smiled. “Imagine that — a half rotting baguette out of a bin. How many LIKES would that get?”

Probably a lot.

I asked him if he found it hard. He laughed: “Of course, it’s hard. When you’re caught in the rain with no shelter and no food, it feels like the world is collapsing on your head. But when the rain stops, and you find something to eat, there’s nothing like it in the world.

LIKE! He gave me a thumbs up.

After we said goodbye and I saw him cycle into the unknown, I had the urge to follow him. Like an Apostle following Jesus. Get on my bike I haven’t used for years, and go after him.

But I let him go. What use would I be? Some jerk who’s more interested in Medium claps and comments than the journey ahead. Find your own adventure, Phil, I told myself. Don’t copy his!

When I got back home, it got me thinking. For a bit. Then I turned my computer on and started writing this. And while my new friend is on the road somewhere, I’m sitting here waiting for the claps and comments to come through.

Thanks for thinking. For more thought, see