Tuesday, April 9, 2019

What is the longest amount of time you have gone without using the internet?

I take attendance by having the students answer a question.

What is the longest amount of time you have gone without using the internet?

Heuristic answers:
  • during class (sometimes 😉)
  • a little while
  • not long


Time to first computer usage from birth:

  • ~4 years before first using a computer
  • probably the first 6-7 years of my life
  • 9 years (the first 9 years of my life)
  • 14 years before I got my first phone
  • 30 years (<-- 30="" a="" aged="" could="" editor="" have="" how="" i="" idea="" li="" no="" note:="" person="" reply="" s="" this="">

Time of longest non-internet "break" since first computer usage:

  • one hour
  • a day
  • 21 hours, cross-continent flight
  • 2 days
  • maybe like 48 hours?
  • 4 days
  • a week
  • two weeks
  • 2 weeks (summer camp in a mountain)
  • A couple weeks? But I'd love to try going w/o it for a longer time.
  • 3 months
One student wrote "∞". I have corresponded with this student by email; I wonder if, on their end, they had the messages transcribed and then read aloud to them by a personal, permanent "internet secretary"? Actually, I'm pretty sure I have watched this student load a webpage during class in a computer lab, so maybe this is just reporting error...

Winning comedic/situationally-funny response: "The times that eduroam is out..."


I previously asked this question in 2017.


This post's theme word is floccipend (v tr), "to regard as worthless." They floccipend internet downtimes.

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