Can you survive without internet for a week?

Sep 8, 2011 by cafebebemama

Last week the Cafe Bebe family went on a holiday to Tenerife (in case you missed a post or seven). My BlackBerry/mobile provider is O2. I checked with a numpty young associate in one of the O2 stores to find out if I needed to do anything or pay for anything that would allow me to use my BB on holiday in Tenerife. He said, “Nah…it will work fine there. You’ll pay a lot for data but just find a wifi place or use BBM and that’s free.” Yes, because at the age of 40 I have all of 2 contacts on BBM so that will come in handy!

It seems that what I should have done was purchase a “bolt-on” for the week that I was in Tenerife in order to partially use my BlackBerry for communication and checking emails. However, numpty-head Young Associate of the Month couldn’t manage to educate me about that. Thankfully, Twitter came to my rescue and told me to be sure to turn off my data roaming before leaving the UK or I would have paid approximately £8 billion for using my phone in Tenerife. (I love you Twitter) Thus, I was forced to learn the answer to the age old question: Can you survive without internet for a week? That answer is: YES!

Unfortunately the Costa del Silencio, where we were staying, was not chock-a-block with wifi and there was really no such thing as FREE wifi (at least that I could find). When we ventured along the boardwalk/harbour area, I did find several “hot spots” where you could pay to connect to the internet but that would have required me to spend periods of time camped out in assorted restaurants, missing out on the point of the holiday…to spend time with my daughter and husband. I had an irrational fear that if I clicked on the Data tab on my BlackBerry that suddenly 18,000 emails, texts and messages would come flooding in and I’d be charge £8,000. So I left the data button in the OFF position and got on with our holiday.

I did manage to find the “good, old-fashioned” internet cafe around the corner from our hotel, however. On 3 occasions, I spent about an hour or so checking emails, Twitter and the blog just to keep the numbers down and traffic up. I had the forward-planning taken care of and had scheduled guest posts from amazing bloggers so Cafe Bebe was not vacant in my absence (thank you to @EnglishMum, @MammasaurusBlog, @Maris_World and @MummyMatters) and I was able to publish one post from abroad for #SilentSunday. I’m sure my “traffic” dropped a teeny bit; I’m sure my Klout score dropped; I’m sure some fair-weather fans dashed off to more vivid pastures. But you know what? That’s ok!

In the 7 days that I was effectively, off-line, I read 2 books (including the popular “One Day” which pissed me RIGHT OFF!), wasn’t glued to Twitter to make it through the day, forgot about the rest of the world, focused on my family and only used my BlackBerry to take pictures! It was liberating. And I tell you, my husband, in particular, was VERY pleased. He said to me, “You’re glued to THAT THING (my BlackBerry). It’s nice to see you NOT jumping every time it pings!” I took this to heart. Does it really matter if I respond IMMEDIATELY to everything that comes through the phone? Does it really matter what my Klout score is? Will my readers fly the coop if I’m not posting every single day? NO!

I still feel a compulsion to check everything now that we are back home. I am well and truly addicted. But part of my part-time, work-at-home job is social media. I do HAVE to do some social media every day. But it is possible to survive without internet for a week. And I’m glad that I was forced to. I need to do this more often. Shut down in the evenings (which I have been doing for a while now), shut down on the weekends. Life is more important. Twitter, blogging and rankings will always be there and will fluctuate with the wind. What really matters is the people who feature on this blog. So thank you Tenerife. Your lack of wifi was a blessing in disguise! Can you survive without internet for a week? Why not give it a go? You just might see what you’re missing out on! This was me, enjoying being internet-free…not such a bad thing!