A day without digital

In a world where e-vites and Facebook events are hotly contested as the next best thing to a printed invite, and the idea of writing a letter is almost as farfetched as the idea of actually receiving one – I thought I’d set myself a challenge.

How would I cope surviving a day without the internet? That means no Wi-Fi, no social media, no online shopping and not even a glance at the weather… Would relying on just printed material be enough to survive the day?

7am

Thank god my alarm clock doesn’t need the internet to work, ‘cos being a millennial I don’t actually own any form of clock. Hmm.

7.15am

What to wear today? There’s no checking BBC Weather so a cautionary glance out the window will probably do. It’s pretty cloudy and depressingly grey… Let’s plan for rain.

8:45am

Time for a cheeky morning coffee stop. But first, let’s see if I can afford a little luxury this month by checking my bank balance on my phone. Oh wait. That’ll require the internet. Let’s just hope for the best.

9:15am

Breakfast and a quick scan of social media? Umm nope. Guess I’ll get stuck into work. Good job I printed everything I need yesterday…

12pm

Guess it’s time for lunch after faffing with all that paper. Plus, actually talking to people is exhausting. How did we cope before email? But now, where to go? A colleague mentions a nice new salad bar in town. Hmm how to get there… anyone got a map?

*Note: using a physical tube map was pretty fun. Not only did it encourage some team bonding but it was also cool to actually plot our journey beforehand and follow a map instead of just plug addresses into an app. I felt like a girl guide all over again!

1.15pm

During a meeting, I suggest searching Pinterest for inspiration… Hmm nope, not going to work… guess I’ll just sketch out my idea instead.

*Note: My drawing skills are somewhat lacking. My attempt at drawing a person handing over a business card looked a little like an alien mutation. Not sure I quite got the point across. Let’s just listen to everyone else quietly.

3pm

The day is starting to get tough now, with no access to the server. Being a forward thinking individual I printed out all my work and saved my documents to the desktop yesterday, but with no social media to distract me all day, I raced through my work and now I’m a little at a loss…

4pm

The plan for rain outfit wasn’t a winner. It’s now 20 something degrees, the sun is out with a vengeance, my jeans are sticking to the insides of my thighs and I’ve got a heavy black leather jacket with me. This walk home is going to be fun.

8pm

Woah, I made it 12 hours without the internet. Blimey! But now I’m faced with a problem… What to cook for dinner? Best crack out the old cookbook. Hmm. Where is the damn cookbook?

*Note: It’s so nice to feel a real cookbook – prop it up on the side and feel its real weight, turn those actual paper pages. Plus, without Facebook notifications popping up all the time, I can cook unhindered, and not cover my phone in tomato sauce while I’m at it. Hurrah!

10pm

Ahh, bedtime! But, with no Orange Is The New Black to send me off to sleep, what to do instead? Sure I had a copy of The Life of Pi somewhere…

*Note: I’m struck by an overwhelming sense of FOMO. What have I missed on social media today? What if I failed to acknowledge a birthday? Or, heaven forbid, what if someone lost a pet and I walked past it, but didn’t know because I didn’t check social media? The anxiety is real. Best get back into Life of Pi.

7am (the next day)

Woke up to one lone Facebook notification. It was my mum. Tagging me in yet another goat video. Perhaps going sans internet isn’t so bad after all…

So what did I learn?

First up, it’s pretty difficult to survive a day without the internet, when you work in a company that operates online. But that aside, I got a lot of work done without the distractions of the internet. And, I got back in touch with real tangible print, a medium which despite the common misconception that ‘print is dead’, definitely proved it very much alive and kicking.

Without the internet I had to rely on both human interaction and printed media, two things that we champion here at printed.com. We may be a website based company, (I mean ‘.com’ is in our name after all) but nothing compares to talking to real person, especially when you need to get stuff done, sharpish.

It might be a little different to the way most other people do things, but we’re all about real people and real service. We have a dedicated UK customer call service here at printed.com, on hand to help whenever you need, and you can reach us by email, live chat, social media or over the phone if you’re taking a break from the internet.

Have you ever tried going without digital? What are your thoughts on Emma-Lee’s day? Tell us by commenting below!