It's funny how "off the grid" to your generation is the "high school" of my generation. I didn't have a cell phone until I was 30 - and it was essentially the 2nd smartphone you could buy. "Off the grid" to my generation means "up in a cabin with no water, power, sewer, phone or television hookups." Take it from me - it can be done.

But it's boring.

The goal of traditional "off the grid" living is self-sufficiency, frugality and ascetic purity. It sounds like the goal of your "off the grid" is simply to reclaim some of your mental real estate. You're being distracted to death. You aren't alone. You're at a disadvantage - you've had it all in your face since you could walk, probably, which means you aren't inoculated against it. You'll have to build up immunity the hard way. It can be done, though.

Up until 2002 I said "I don't carry a cell phone because people don't have phone numbers, places do. I'm not a place. If you need to get ahold of me, you can call me where my phones are." Life made that rough but I gotta tell ya - I get maybe two calls a day. If we cut out the ones from my wife, I get maybe five calls a week. I check Facebook maybe twice a week, I don't tweet, i don't snapchat, I don't do any of that shit. And my life doesn't lack it.

To the contrary - I solved a sticky professional situation today. The problem had been generated by email etiquette. I fixed it by inviting the guy to lunch. SORTED. But you have to make that choice, and you have to make the people who matter to you understand that choice.

You don't have to answer your phone. You don't have to check your email. You don't have to log in all the fucking time. You choose to. You're conditioned to, everything about your life tells you to, your social network demands it of you. But it's still a choice.

Want something to do? Buy a Kindle. Not a Fire, not an HDX, a gray one that sucks for everything but books. Buy a book or two. You're conditioned to looking at a screen and you're conditioned to having a million songs in your pocket and having a dozen books will suit you. You can save things, your place doesn't get lost, and it'll sync to your phone. And the difference between "reading Facebook on the bus" and "reading a goddamn book on the bus" is night and day.

Buddy of mine has six motorcycles. We both ride in LA traffic every day. We independently came to the same conclusion - riding a motorcycle in LA traffic is the only way to be truly mindful, to be truly present in this city. If you're driving, you're tuned out (and probably stoned - you would not believe what the 405 smells like at rush hour). If you're a passenger, you're elsewhere. But on a motorcycle? "pay fucking attention to everything that is going on around you or you might die." That choice - to commute in a dangerous and high-attention way - is one of the few things that actually keeps you present.

There's a phrase in one of my bar books: "Alcohol is an excellent servant but a terrible master." Technology is the same. If you're letting your gadgets pistol-whip you into doing things you don't want to do, the solution is to sack up and take some initiative in your life. Yeah, you can downgrade all your stuff so it's less of a temptation… but in the end, if you don't learn how to deal with it you'll be a slave as soon as your girlfriend leaves her iPhone at your house.

You don't have to go "off the grid." You simply have to choose not to have the grid on you.

It makes me a little sad that "off the grid" has come to mean: "without a cell phone".

When I first read your post, I thought to myself: "Hell no, I don't know how to deal with a septic tank, I can't sew my own cloths, I won't give up the internet."

But a phone? I misplace it all the time anyways. Facebook? Don't have one. Twitter? Don't want one.

Yet I still use RSS, I still hang out on IRC, I still read Hubski posts. I'm a technophile by any standard.

I plan to live off the grid once I finish paying off my student loans. Unfortunately, I realized that dream after I had committed too much to college. Check out The Man Who Quit Money.

Try this.

Go to your smartphone's 'Do Not Disturb' settings. Set it so that it's silent once you get out of work. No alerts, no email, no text, no anything. Depending on your model, you should be able to allow exception phone calls through (close family, spouse, etc). Do the same with any sort of portable tablet or other computer.

Once you get home, set your phone in your bedroom and go about your evening. Perhaps you will wander into the bedroom and check it from time to time on your own terms, which is fine. I think you might be surprised at the serenity just 'going silent' after work can bring you. You won't miss anything. Important calls will still get through, and you'll still check your mail. But you won't be constantly yanked away from your life to do so.

I have a pacemaker, so in short, no. In long form, were my health not a concern, very probably. I don't need electronics, but I do need stimulation. So, theoretically, my acoustic guitar, and a large enough library and I would be content, from a mental stimulation perspective.

I feel like a minority in this modern society but I love the smartphone. I love the wealth of knowledge accessible instantly, I enjoy texting my friends across the globe, and I like buying stuff while walking down the street. Why would I want to give this up? I don't want to give it up; I want to make it better, I want to make it private, I want to make it decentralized. It's not perfect but it's fucking awesome.

While obviously I'm not in the minority because so many people have smart phones but im willing to admit my love for the fuckers.

I can trap and skin rabbits, make minnow traps, build shelters, and I know a number of flora that I can eat. However, I doubt I'd ever be pushed to living completely off-the-grid. I can also fix things, so yes, I think I could get by.

But, I agree with kleinbl00, you aren't talking about being off-the-grid, so much as just wasting too much time on the web. I'd suggest quitting all of the apps that you like least. Just leave one or two.

It takes time for culture to normalize to new technologies. People aren't going to be looking at little black slabs forever. Go with your gut, and don't worry much about what everyone else seems to think is worthwhile. IMO smartphones are 30% utility 70% farmville.

I briefly dumped my smartphone while trying out Ting (didn't want to invest in a phone for that network until I was sure I liked it.) I could certainly live without a smartphone, but it's convenient to be able to look up things on a whim. I'm not the kind of person that constantly glued to my phone at every idle moment though. I don't use Facebook, Twitter, etc. Yes, occasionally I get shit about not being on Facebook because someone wants me to see some photos or whatever, but I don't care.

I went without a car until I was 24, so I can tell you, no, people did not talk on the bus before (not in the DC area anyway), besides normal polite things like "excuse me." (well except once some guy randomly said to me getting off the bus "Don't let anyone make you think you aren't beautiful" have no idea where that came from.) I did go to a company lunch one time that was kind of weird because everyone was staring at their phones. Situations like that almost make me feel like I ought to be doing something on my phone.

The thing about technology is that though many of it has its advantage and burdens, it's rarely ever forced on you. You get unwanted emails from work on your smartphone? Don't connect your smartphone to your work email. It lags, freezes, wont connect? Get a better phone or something simpler. You feel constant internet access makes you unproductive? Use some self-control or buy a dumbphone. The place where I spend the most amount of time browsing the internet on my phone is in my house when I'm on the couch or in bed. You make it sound as if its the technology's fault that throughout the day it's making you unproductive, but you do not have use it. Why would you choose to keep on using something that gives you 'incredible anxiety' if you don't have to?

That's fine for the individual, but if you have a problem with society as a whole then that's a different story. I do not think the next generation will resist technology as a whole. Why would they? The technology may be very different than what appears to be on the cards now. Technology evolves from day to day and the innovation of today could be considered a passed fad next year. A bit like that H.G. Wells quote - "The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow." Like you say, the best technology is unobtrusive and who's to say that a future version of Google Glass isn't the next digital watch, so to speak? And like wise, I don't think social media will ever disappear, only change forms. Studies have shown that teens are already moving away from centralised hubs such as Facebook and using specific tools like Snapchat, Instragram and WhatsApp. Think how different the social media landscape was for us 10 years ago, who knows what new vision will drive the space in the future.

And in reference to your last paragraph, it seems almost everything in this world is crazy behind the scenes. If you enjoy questions and discussing this type of thing though, check out Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror series.

I need very few parts of modern technology to be happy.

1. Warm, dry, safe place to poo at my leisure (I actually don't have this right now ... shared bathroom with two adolescent boys and my partner).

Other than that I'm still good with maps/compass when need be. I prefer wood stoves. Both of my vehicles are stick. One doesn't really need a battery to start ... only needs to be pushed. I still buy dictionaries. I don't buy encyclopedias, though. And I know how to research without the internet.

That said ... I don't know how to skin an animal. I buy my meat at a butcher. We get veggies and fruits from a farm. And our milk and eggs are from a local dairy that delivers. I've never killed an animal on purpose except as an act of mercy.

I dumped my smart phone a couple years back. Really I prefer the ability to create distance from people rather than the proximity on-demand. My personal batteries recharge with alone time and discharge around people.

So I guess I could probably be transferred technologically back to around ~1950 and still be somewhat functional and useful to society as is.

I want to say yes, but obviously not without difficulty. The main one being farming. I have the benefit of coming from a Caribbean background. Basically, mother's family had a small farm and I spent time there as a child learning how to work the land and livestock. My father was a cadet on his island as well as a carpenter and taught me lessons from both.

In recent times, I've made friends with someone who lives almost completely off the grid. Time is spent with him trying to understand the lessons taught as a child and put them to use.

There's something about abandoning the comforts of technology that's like a reset button on being human. Intentionally limiting interactions with technology is of some definite benefit. I try to use technology with explicit purpose and not just consumption and entertainment. Doing that, a lot of the technologies we popularly promote dont actually seem useful in terms of accomplishing a task. It may be a case of the tool working the users and not the users working the tool.

Technology is great, I use it for practically everything. But if I spend too much time glued to a screen, I start to feel hollow. After a while all the information becomes a blur and I get overloaded.

I deleted my facebook awhile back because all the content was meaningless, and I logged on too often to just waste time. On hubski at least I read some informative articles, and twitter I get updates from bands, record labels, and news sources. I try to limit myself to sites that are informative and a good use of my time.

I also refuse to get a smartphone. I spend too much time online as it is, I know myself and if I got a smartphone I would be glued to it 24/7. I like just walking around and observing the scenery. Observing interesting people, listening to snippets of conversation, smelling smells etc. I get more out of that, in terms of relaxation and refreshment, then I would glued to a screen.

I think technology is amazing, and I hope it keeps evolving. But I also hope people are able and willing to recognize it's limitations and the harmful effects it can have on us. I believe, however, that people who are able to do this will be few and far between. I'm pessimistic I know, but I think society will get sucked farther and farther down that rabbit hole, to what end I don't know.