a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment

I think the longest I've gone is about a month, also while travelling. I don't notice the absence of the internet so much after a few days, kind of like taking a break from or attempting to quit smoking. What generally gets to me more is the absence of a phone.

Also, I used to take photos fairly often, especially while travelling, but after my camera got stolen I never bothered to get another one. It would be nice to have photos of some things I've seen, but honestly I kind of prefer my own notes or memories of things, or rediscovering shared events by talking with whoever I was on the trip with.

I think the thing about photos occurred to me in relation to the original question is that pictures, taken from one's own perspective generally beg one to ask the question, "where was I?" Unless it's a self-shot, the photographer is generally absent from the moment they're recording. To me, being present in the moment is important and it's something I'm working on. The internet isn't so much a part of that, perhaps because on the internet I'm mostly a consumer of content rather than a creator.

One impression I have of my visit to Pompeii was that there were a lot of discarded cigarette packs in the ruins. The sand that composes the streets is kind of a flinty grey, but that day it was raining and the sand was very dark. We were the only tourists there and walking through the ruins of that ancient city, looking at those frozen people and I wondered whose ashes were in my shoes.