Is choosing not to use the internet irresponsible?

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curiousgrace

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Hello!.. so a few years ago I cut myself off from Facebook, Instagram etc. I have no social media sites and now I have decided I want to cut the internet out of my life. Yes that’s right. Meaning I need to purchase a non-smartphone. At least just for thirty days to trial it. Except of course only for emails accessible through my laptop once or twice per week.

The reason is that I have realized that the internet has stopped me from doing a lot in my life, at least for the past several years. It’s always being accessible, right in my hand, and subconsciously I have consistently fooled my brain into believing I am being productive (every minute of the day) when in actual fact I am not.

It will feel uncomfortable, but I have always had a pressing feeling despite how uncomfortable we may feel but that we grow through the feelings of not being comfortable. I don’t know if I am overthinking. I can always just turn off the thing but I am concerned that I am so burnt out by information overload.

In relation to the news and all the rich sources of religious information… is this irresponsible and sinful if I choose this? A form of chosen ignorance perhaps?
 
curiousgrace said:
I have no social media sites and now I have decided I want to cut the internet out of my life.
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I wish I had your courage. I left social media for Lent a year ago and I’ve never come back since, with the exception of this forum (where I also spend too much time). I keep telling myself I can’t live without the Internet, but really I’m just being lazy and complacent about my situation. I know that it would lead me closer to God, but I think I need a little push to actually go without the Internet.
 
You can do it!! if I can then you can. Yes, forums can waste a lot of time. Your not being lazy, I think you may just not know how to do it. Just put yourself out there and don’t do what the 99.1% rest of the people are doing. I will keep you in my prayers tonight.
 
I don’t have a smart phone or I-phone. I have a flip phone that cost $50… I actually had the same flip phone for over 16 years, but it finally gave up the ghost so I had to buy this new one.

The only thing I don’t like about my flip is the camera–the pictures are pretty bad. But I’ve never been one to take a lot of pictures, and my main use of the camera is to take pictures of typewriters I find at flea markets that I think my husband might be interested in for his collection.

I have never done Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat (for which you need a good camera and a smart phone), etc.

My husband has a Facebook account, and uses it wisely. He only accepts requests from people who he is related to, or who he really wants to be friends with, and only checks in briefly to keep up to date with births, deaths, etc. And he uses Facebook to seek out items for his collection.
He does NOT use Facebook or any Internet to have discussions, especially politics. He has actually muted many of his friends who have extremely liberal views and have posted some quite disturbing lies about various conservative issues. They are still on his Facebook friends roster so they don’t get offended at him, but he doesn’t read their postings.

I think that social media can be a great blessing to shuts ins and people with mobility disabilities that keep them home-bound much of the time.

But if you are able-bodied and mobile, I agree with you that you are wasting a lot of valuable time if you are online for many hours. While you are able to move around, I would say to greatly limit online time or eliminate it if you can, and get outside, exercise, work on hobbies, travel if you have time and money, work at a job and perhaps even find a second part-time job if you have time (no family to care for) so that you can build up some savings.

Above all else, develop your relationship with the Lord. Pray, read the Bible, the Catechism, and spiritual books, take religious pilgrimages, sign up for Bible studies and other religious study groups, and volunteer for various parish and diocesan tasks and committees.

Also, volunteer for non-church activities and charities in your area.

If you have a family to care for or extended older family members that enjoy a visit, for, it’s even more important that you limit your online time and spend most of your free time with your loved ones–they won’t be here forever and neither will you.

Good luck to you! If you make the decision to cut or curtail your online time, you won’t regret it. You’ll find that you love life!
 
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No, it isn’t irresponsible. But remember, God has given us the Internet as one way to reach the masses.
 
Sounds right in line with the virtue of prudence. I think it’s great that you’re willing to do so.
 
No it’s not sinful, how can that be?
Always pray and bring these things to God in case there is any temptation in them. It is good I think that you have chosen to do it for a month and see how it goes. I’d say meditate on it with God and bring the 4 cardinal virtues (especially temperance) to the test on it and pray often on it. I’d say have a concrete idea on what you want to use the time for, because believe me you can just as easily fritter away the time day dreaming or on other silliness.
As for news and religious information…there are such things as mass, The Bible, books and newspapers and libraries and even tv newsbroadcasts …oh and even talking to people 😉

I have also wondered on this too. People tied to their phones and computers, it is madness. It does open you up to random chat with people on buses and waiting in line if you aren’t nose in phone. God bless
 
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curiousgrace said:
Except of course only for emails accessible through my laptop once or twice per week.
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I would say this part could be a problem depending on your job or volunteer positions. Other than that, no it is not irresponsible, it is freeing and inspiring. Im always inspired when someone does this.
 
I’m one of only three people I know who does not own a mobile phone of any kind. I’m not on Facebook, Instagram, Snap-whatever or any social media other than a few discussion forums like this one. I don’t use the internet on weekends since I’d rather be reading. I could do very well without it altogether, apart from a few requirements at work, and encourage your experiment toward this.
 
I’ve always had the nagging suspicion this would be one of the first pieces of advice I’d receive from a saint. It’s inspiring to hear you are doing this. One of these days, God willing, I might join you…
 
Why would you need to buy a non-smart phone? Get on the phone you have and turn off the wi-fi and turn off the data. Poof! It isn’t smart any more. If you are afraid you’re too weak, remove the apps that access the internet.

I had to do this on vacation (because I am too cheap to pay international roaming charges), and it is only uncomfortable for awhile. After that, I remembered how nice it is to not be on the electronic leash, which is to say in a place where incoming electronic messages pull me away from real life. My husband had to remain available for what really are urgent calls about urgent matters. I didn’t envy him. I did like that we had his phone to use for its GPS, though. Smart phones have their place, in other words.

As for the news, if you tell your friends to let you know if there is news you just have to have in order to do what you ought to do, so you’ll know if you ought to be discerning whether to drop everything you are doing to respond to some emergency, someone will oblige.

As for the religious information, you still have a laptop with e-mail, so you can get that.

By the way, though, where did you get the idea that holiness requires “being productive (every minute of the day)”? No, holiness requires being available to God every minute of the day. That requires a radical willingness to let go of what we have decided is “productive.” We have to be willing to “waste time” with God and with neighbor. That’s what the internet tends to rob us of. We waste so much time on our inordinate attachments that we don’t have the time to both do our work and make ourselves generously available to other people or to just listening to God.

I can’t speak for you, but I become greedy to know things that I don’t need to know. Some of us become greedy to be in the thoughts of other people, to be noticed. I think what you’ll be trying to balance is getting yourself separated from whatever temporal thing you feel you’re becoming inordinately attached to and yet still keeping yourself available for love of neighbor. As long as your availability is predictable to those who might need you on an ongoing basis and something that can be penetrated if there is a true emergency, though, the rest has a way of becoming excessive. (Love of neighbor does not require you to be on an electronic leash, lol.)

On that note…time for me to log out for the day!!
 
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How could it be sinful?

I don’t like to use a microwave. I know people who do not use Air Conditioning or other modern conveniences. Many readers will not move to ebooks.

There are many many books you can read that will deepen and enrich your Faith.
 
Things might be prudent or imprudent and a combination of the two for many, many reasons, but there isn’t a moral obligation to use the internet, obviously.

Think of it in terms of what you think will make you the best version of yourself and what God’s will is for you, not about what is sinful. Some choices in life are between good and evil but many or most are between two goods and discerning which is the better.
 
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“If you are afraid you’re too weak” - what kind of statement / advice is that?

As for switching off the internet off my phone, that is not the point. I can switch it back on anytime. it’s not even that I wouldn’t be able to control myself as I know I could but it’s do with the peace of mind. Zero distraction. Even carrying a personal assistant (my high tech phone) without the internet is a distraction to me and feel is impeding my spiritual advancement. It is also what this electronic gadget represents.

Where did I get my idea that holiness requires being productive every minute of the day? As you said, holiness does require being available to God every minute of the day, however make no mistake, we ARE obliged to do His holy will in all things otherwise we cannot please Him. This takes prayer and careful discernment. One can be doing sinful things that does not please God and yet think they are being “available” to God every day. I recommend you read the works of St. Alphonsus Liguori on the value of time amongst many other Saints who spoke about this topic, if you have not done so.

I also think that you have misrepresented my idea of the term “productive”. To me, productivity in the holy sense, is not wasting a single precious moment of our lives not glorifying God.

To “waste time” with God and my neighbour IS being productive to me.

To wake up early in the morning choosing not to sleep in and to pray the Rosary for my family, friends and this sinful world IS being productive to me.

To fulfill my obligation to my state in my life that I have become aware of through prayer and discernment IS being productive to me.

I am not talking about all of the fancy things you might think I am referring to.
 
No, not irresponsible. Not unless you have people that you have online friendships with.

For me I have definitely thought about it. But I wish to continue using the internet purely for spiritual education - reading and learning as much as I can and discussing that with others.

I have a limited social life, mostly due to my illness. The internet gives me an option to reach out to the world and others that I would not have been able to previously.

The reason why I have considered not using the internet before, is mostly to avoid the news, negative comments, and individuals. I think the world we live in is hard enough as it is, and seeing and reading negative information doesn’t help.

So yeah there are definitely good and bad sides to it, but for me the good outweighs the bad with using the internet.

One of the things I have wanted to do in general with regards to technology, is simplify it’s involvement in my everyday life. For me personally, aside from the good points mentioned of speaking to others online, the bombardment of technology and information everywhere can make things seem overwhelming. So I have thought about simplifying life back to how I remember it in the 90s where technology was used but it wasn’t everywhere in my life.

I thought about getting a basic tv that had no smart features and only had so many channels. I thought about getting a mobile phone with no smart features, and if I did decide to use the internet, I would restrict it to certain times in the day like the evening as it used to be when I used to use dial up in the late 90s and early 2000s.

But for me, I am going to keep using the internet to mainly keep reading this site. It all depends on what you personally use the internet for and how important that is to you.
 
Allow me to clarify: I should have written “if you are afraid that you are too weak”…which is to say that some of us can’t remove the distractions inherent to an object by just turning distracting features off. We need to have a different object that doesn’t even have those features as a possibility in order to remove the distraction (or the near occasion of sin or what have you). I was only trying to suggest that you have a choice that includes a financial investment that might be either unnecessary or justified, depending on your particular circumstance. Whether it is justified or not depends on you. We’re all weak in different ways; I don’t see that as some kind of an accusation. Our Lord spent time with tax collectors and prostitutes, but monks don’t generally think it wise to live near brothels. That’s no statement against monks, right?

So let me get this straight, though. Do you both think that having the features of a phone might be sinful and yet you also think that deciding not to have the features might be sinful?

If you’re worried about “not wasting a single precious moment of our lives not glorifying God,” maybe look over this thread and ask if you and I wouldn’t both be more ready for heaven if we’d done something else with our day? There is careful discernment but there is also such a thing as obsessing over minutiae that don’t deserve that kind of time.
 
I think that completely banning the internet in one’s life would be really difficult for anyone who was planning on interacting with society. It would severely impact one’s employment prospects, at the very least. One would have difficulty doing almost every kind of business. I don’t think it would be sinful, but it would be really hard. On the other hand, limiting ones access by not owning a smart phone or tablet is certainly doable and could have a lot of positive effects. I personally, don’t own a smartphone and I have no intention of purchasing one. I have to do all my internet when I get home at night.
 
I never said nor think that having the features of a phone is sinful or that not having the features is sinful… that is a complete misrepresentation of anything I have said… I really don’t understand your point and I am going to end the back and forth posts right now.

Purchasing a device that does not have the modern day features phones have today would certainly not be expensive… I was speaking about the internet in general, not about devices although they help drive our use - it can be controlled. I’m not talking about devices. I am talking about the world wide web.

I am going to stop responding to your posts now.
 
No, nobody is required to use the Internet and nobody cares if you use it or not.
Many people, including many Catholics, don’t use it at all.

You might want to occasionally take a look at a Catholic newspaper in order to see what’s happening with the Church, just as presumably you will also be occasionally looking at a secular news broadcast or reading a secular newspaper to see what’s happening in the world. You can likely find a Catholic newspaper at your parish as many parishes will have one in the parish library or sitting in the vestibule of the church with other reading matter.
 
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