Could you survive a month without the internet?

Writer Stephen Elliott went a month without the internet and lived to tell the tale:

I was in Gaza when the Israeli soldiers were snatched from their posts. I was in New Orleans three days after Katrina smashed the levees to bits and the city flooded. But of all of my various adventures, people have been most curious about my recent decision to go offline for a month. I bought an old word processor and left my fancy laptop with a friend.

"How will you exist?" my roommate asked. "You'll have no idea what's going on. You won't be able to find anything."

He was right about not being able to find anything. I rode through the hills west of San Francisco's Mission District on my bicycle one cold night looking for a party. Normally I would have printed a map after searching online for the address. Or when I realized I was lost, I would have called a friend and asked him to Google the address for me. Instead, I went home.

"What is it like?" some asked. "I bet it's relaxing," they said, venturing a guess. "I wish I could do that," others mused wistfully, as if it were simply not possible for them. Still others thought I was a fool; they seemed to actually resent me for it. "Don't ask me what time the movie's playing, Mr. No-Internet." They refused to call when they found out I wouldn't be using e-mail: "I'll talk to you next month, when you're normal again." '

Read more here (from Poets & Writers).

(Hat tip: Reel Pop.)