Your “grow a mustache then shave it” stance is a refreshing alternative to the vehement side-taking typical of mustache discourse.

Matt E.’s artwork is dope!

I commend you for trying to remove the internet from your home (and all of the wonderful stuff you got accomplished then) but I think your story holds a message. If we want to live in isolation from the rest of the world than I think we can remove tech, but if we want to participate through jobs or social mediums then we need to get with the program or face obsolescence.

Check out this NYTimes article where a couple moved into a virtually isolated landscape but required the internet in their yurt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/garden/31yurt.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=yurt&st=cse

My take on ALL new technologies– iphones, computers, internet, weapons, alternative fuels, cars that drive themselves, cat litter boxes which rake and flush themselves, etc.– is that we should not fully adopt them until we know their long-term effects. I am suspicious. And I believe that it is not at all neurotic to be so, because many of the great catastrophes of history were caused by technologies whose full scope and capability were unknown.

Further, most things that help us do things faster maximize our unsustainable behaviors, and in my opinion are expediting our demise.

So I would absolutely approach with caution.

And personally, life WAS better without the internet. In that month, I called friends, wrote letters, stayed out later and was surprised by news. (When information is delivered to me by the newspaper, tv or computer, I just sort of slowly accept it. On the other hand, when people tell me things– gossip, or items of local interest, my reactions are much more dramatic, which I apparently prefer.) My life felt more like an existence that people would seek rather than aim to repair.

And P.S., think of how childhood has changed!