• What is the longest you have gone without it?
• Was it intentional or out of your control? 
• Did you go batty or were you chill?

I've gone a good 3 weeks without it, many times, and it always happens when I'm away, on vacation. It is completely intentional and I do not miss it. In fact, I feel totally liberated. When I come back home, the addiction builds up to its former level over the course of a week, I'd say.

When we have some technical problem and we lose internet, that's when I go nuts within the first hours. But I find that usually, by the second day, I'm reading a book, or have found something else to do. Still, I think about what I'm missing and I feel sort of uncomfortable that I'm not connected.

I definitely see a compulsive habit in me in regard to internet and I hate that. I see it as my weakness, my addiction. I wish I could get rid of it. I am worried about the impact that internet, and social media in general, will have on my children's lives. My son has never brought a friend home since the age of 10. All his friends now are internet friends. He does not go out ever on weekends, he's just always online. We have to drag him forcefully to attend family dinners. Even then, he needs to have his gadgets to stay connected. I do not find it healthy. Because I'm from an older generation, I can still see the difference between a real friend and an internet one. A day will come when no one will be able to tell the difference anymore and that worries me. Am I being too dramatic about it? Old-fashioned, maybe?

When we're traveling, we try to get a motel or campground with internet about once a week.  Our trips have lasted from a month on the road to six or seven months.  When doing our long distance hikes, we would get access about once a month, if that, just to check email and send out updates to friends.  Usually more trouble than it was worth.  I don't miss it when I don't have it, and actually really look forward to being disconnected.  I have made real life friends with people I've met on the internet, but a lot of time is spent with people I'll never meet in the most superficial of interactions.

I was without for about 4 months (I think) when I first moved out of my parents house after graduating college. This was 1998, so dial up and all that fun stuff. When I moved again a few months later, I got a new computer & internet access. E-mail was just taking off at that point, so wasn't really an issue.

Not sure of any length of time since then. DH is in IT and works from home fairly regularly. We did go through a period where our modem was dying and disconnecting all the time Comcast so nicely sent us a tech with the swine flu to fix it 

I have gone a week plus without it.  Camping and backpacking trips.  I always kind of liked being completely away from it.  But it's been a few years since I've gone on that type of trip. When I'm staying at a hotel, I use it.

Oski, you must be young. There was no internet anywhere near me when I was at school.

I did not have it for about a month when I first moved into my house, and the things that mostly annoyed me were: 1) being in limited contact with my online friends, and 2) having to write down workouts to log them later at the library, at work, or from my extremely clunky phone browser.

I guess the whole internet/real friends thing is blurred for me.  When I first got home access back in '97/'98, it was still considered socially weird in some circles to "FE" people you met online, but crossing that barrier actually led to many local "real" friends that I wouldn't have otherwise made. (Some parties even had nametags for your forum nickname so that people could match faces. "Oh!  So you're Jay716")

Also, I'm quite sure that this community is responsible for much of my improvement as a runner, so there's that.

The one thing that bothers me is people constantly having their nose in their smart phone when they're out doing something else.  If you're out on a date or at a concert or dinner or hiking up a mountain, FFS put the phone down and be in the moment.  The internet will wait.

 

We are the same age     My first email address was freshman year of college!   And my parents had AOL dial up at home (remember those horrible CDs they would send in the mail? lol)

I didn't see those until the late 90s. I didn't get an email address until 1997 (after college). I know we had a student room with computers but I doubt there was any internet until 1996-1997 (senior year).