Are some of us heading for life without the internet?
If you don't want to provide your ID to access an app, your phone, your computer, your internet account — what are the options? Welcome back to life pre-1990s.
I was there at the beginning. It was fabulous. All my dreams rolled up into one. I couldn't get enough of it. Here was this amazing network that connected the world. I followed bloggers in the US. People I would never have come across without the technology. There were no algorithms deciding what I saw. You just went looking, and you found things.
The web was wild then. Strange, chaotic, full of people making odd little corners of the internet their own. Businesses were nervous about creating even the most basic brochureware site. Now those same businesses run entire operations online.
Everything evolves. For me, the great promise of the internet was connection — linking us to almost every person across the globe. The ability to share ideas, learn from people we'd never otherwise meet. That part was real. It delivered.
Then came the bargain. Free services in exchange for your attention, your data, your behaviour. The algorithm crept in quietly and rewrote the rules. And now governments are adding their own terms — age verification, digital IDs, censorship dressed up as child protection. The logic is always safety. The effect is a door with a bouncer and a clipboard.
I still love being online. I love the tech I use. I love what AI does for my Obsidian vault and notetaking. But having everything I do tracked, and requiring my ID to do it, is a step too far.
And then there's the doomscrolling. Perhaps life would be better if we got out there and interacted in person again. The people who've already stepped back from the mainstream internet tend to find something quieter and more sustaining on the other side.
Would I miss the internet? Yes. It's been a mainstay of my life for over 30 years. But perhaps I'd finally get my book written without all the distractions. On an unplugged PC, of course.
But then — who will read what I've written?
Related: Way Way Back · The World Wild Web · Antisocial Media · Paul Jarvis Quit the Internet · Deep Diving into the Analogue World