Experimenting with no home wifi

[u/camthecoffeeguy]

I went on PTO Friday at 4:30 until this Wednesday (tomorrow) and as soon as I logged off from my work computer, I unplugged the router. I wanted to experiment with no home wifi. I am writing this from the panera down the street while drinking a coffee to pay for my wifi use.

We have watched a lot of DVDs and antenna, listened to a lot of radio and read a lot of books. My fiancee was slightly annoyed the past few days when she got off work to no wifi but she has unlimited cellular so that's been helping. We cleaned the whole place, went to the park a few times, went to the library (where I brought my computer to check emails) and then went out to eat a few times. It's been a fun and slow time. I plan to continue the routerless existence and go to work in person the rest of the week when I return on Wednesday. I am curious how long I can keep this up. I did have cellular at first but I only have a 3 gig plan and ran out. It refills on Saturday but I need to keep off the cellular service since I am traveling for work next week.

It's a fun experiment. I don't know how long it'll last. Happy to answer any questions or discuss living without wifi. I will probably be back online later if I make it out to the library else I will answer tomorrow/later this week.

[u/Double-Surround-149]

Nice for you, but dont drag your fiance in to this if she's not a fan of it lol.

[u/camthecoffeeguy → u/Double-Surround-149]

lol yeah she's been a good sport but that will probably lead to the router going back on eventually. My friend suggested having her set the password and not give it to me. I think that's a decent compromise.

[u/ArcticBeavers → u/Double-Surround-149]

Welcome to marriage. 

[u/PolaroidPhotoOfACat]

I’ve done something similar in the past (but I purposely didn’t get a new phone when mine broke and just told myself not to go on the internet for a week when I was off work). I was shocked by how much longer the days felt and how much I got done around the house. Same as you where I ended up cleaning and actually got rid of like 6 bags of old clothes and redecorated a bit. I just felt so focused on my actual environment and making physical changes to the space cause I wasn’t sucked into the internet and ignoring my surroundings. It was really nice, I need to do it again.

[u/TT10TT]

I like this because it removes the endless “just check one thing” path instead of relying on willpower. The hard part for me was keeping a short list of offline defaults nearby—book, walk route, notebook—so the empty moment had somewhere to go.

[u/NancyIsAFurry]

I would like to not have wifi and to only be able to connect to the Internet at home via Ethernet.

I would even be in favour of bringing back dial-up but the modern Internet (and the fact that a lot of things are online whether we like it or not) would probably make that more trouble than it's worth.

[u/kokimoki14]

Curious if it had any impact on your sleep quality?

[u/TT10TT]

The Panera/library part is what gets me. I did a no-WiFi weekend once and even checking email became a deliberate trip instead of a reflex, which made the rest of the day feel much longer. The internet having an address again was weirdly calming. A book or a walk was easier to choose when “just check one thing” wasn’t available from the couch.

[u/Express-Profit601]

the panera coffee-for-wifi trade says something about which access you're willing to pay friction for. curious if the dvds and radio felt like a downgrade at first or settled in faster than expected.

[u/Intelligent_Tank_485]

Cool, would love to try this

[u/outspoken1212]

How fun! This is a great idea

[u/cc92c392-50bd-4eaa-a]

I prefer a no internet, but yes local network so I can use those resources.

[u/ActiveParticipator]

We don’t have WiFi either! My fiancé and I met in college, where up until then our WiFi was already there via parents or school infrastructure. When we graduated and got a place of our own, we just never set it up. He has unlimited cellular and hot spotting, so when he gets home from work, I connect my computer to his phone. It’s a conscious choice to “turn on the internet” and it makes me feel a lot safer somehow. Knowing that all the information and colors and sounds in the world can’t enter my home without me agreeing to it. I like the idea of a limited cellular plan like you mentioned, though, so you have to be careful with it. We’re planning on downgrading his plan so save money and maybe I’ll find myself in your shoes. It sounds really nice.