I just got back from almost 3 weeks of being off the communications grid. No cell phone, no laptop, no TV, no radio, no nothing. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. We stayed in tents and would on occasion meet up with some of the local Maya people.
I found myself to be a lot less anxious without the constant bombardment of news, shows, etc. Except for the occasional radio or TV the Maya we met up with spent most of their time working and playing together. By our standards, they materially have next to nothing. They were also some of the most happy people I have ever met. It was a great trip by the way!
Have you ever experienced a extended period of time without connectivity to the outside world?
We almost never had a telephone when I was growing up. I never in a million years would have thought I’d look back fondly on that time. One time I had lost a shoe walking across the frozen lake to go to one of my brothers friends house. His friends parents were gone and they were all drinking. His friend gave me a piggy back ride the rest of the way to the house. No one there would give me a ride home and of course we didn’t have a phone so I couldn’t call my mom. But it was like 30 degrees out so I just walked home with one shoe on. I only had a few blisters. It’s funny how age turns an awful story into reminiscing.
At my age, of course. One time I went on a "fly in fishing" trip in Canada by myself. I was alone in a cabin on a lake, and didn't see or talk to another human for a week. I did talk to the squirrels and one moose. I tried to talk to the fish but they were mad at me. I found it refreshing and never got lonely.
I use the AM radio to relax me. At night time, most AM radios will recieve better (it has to do with the sun and the earth ionosphere). So I enjoy listening to distance stations, cuz it relaxes me. Something about the sound of a distance radio station and the light static that comes with it. If I go for walks with my dogs, I use my headphones and walkman, so I can listen to the FM radio. It would be hard for me to disconnect all of my electronics all the way.
When camping and during the past couple of hurricanes...yes.
The battery operated radio I had did not function so only real even contact was going out to the car.
It was nice by the camping by choice.
But the hurricane bit was pretty stressful. No real way to contact people in area. And roads were blocked for days.
And now I really feal for the people in Peurto Rico living that for months now.
That happen here too. It's really weird to be asking people trying to restore power about what it happening is in the world! However that is the way we used to do it. lol Usually at least one Cell Phone company is working - and for that I have a back up battery.
ROFPML,
I am in Australia, we have the National Broadband Network, (NBN) or Fraudband as we call it.
It just dies in my area 3 days after every rain then slowly crawls but up to about 10% of the speed I was promised, but the crawling takes about a month.
Backpacking and camping in Yosemite as an adult, sometimes out sailng or at my cabin. My whole childhood from 1963 to the early to mid-80's. I worked in IT for a few years before people started getting individual e-mail addresses that you could send out of a company domain, 2-way pagers, and cell phones.
Yes im 57 of course I have.
and I loved my childhood though I fucking hated school because im dyslexic and not stupid and don't like this pretentious smile for the camera shit. I didn't like it then.
@SteveB -- Quite a bit.
Where did you go that you were meeting up with the Maya?
@SteveB -- Interesting. Do you plan on returning?
I lived in Mexico for several years and managed to visit the majority of Mayan sites there. Just one site, Zaculeu, in Guatemala. The city surrounding the site is Huehuetenango. Did you get there? Had to cut that trip short for work or I would have played in Guatemala a while longer.
Until the late 1990s, most of us were unconnected. Even now, I only use local wi-fi...no smart phone.
Here in Thailand I have often traveled to national parks and off shore islands where there is no internet, several days at a time.