Real Life: A Magical Guide to Getting Off the Internet is a how-to and story-telling zine by me and my friend Dave Cave. We both realized we’d been spending way too much time online, and that we always ended up feeling worse when we wasted time on the internet. Sound familiar? Sometimes it seems like everyone is talking about spending less time on the internet, but they’re not actually just logging off and walking away. So this zine documents our attempts to do just that, and to encourage YOU to do the same.

We set challenges to do things like:

– delete your Facebook account for a pre-planned period of time
– don’t check your email unless you’re in the mood to respond to messages
– don’t use the internet first thing in the morning or last thing before you go to bed
– cull your friends lists!!!
– unsubscribe from newsletters
– set limits for how much time to spend online
– and so on…

And we ask questions like:

– at what times are you most likely to update yr pals on yr life via the internetz?
– how often do you check your Facebook feed? Why?
– what is your online persona like compared to your real life self?
– how do you decide when to click “like” and when to respond with actual real words?
– when you’re not online, do you find yourself thinking about what your next update will be?
– do you find yourself trying to condense the details of your day to fit within a character limit?
– how do you communicate with your friends who don’t have FB accounts?
– do you have to tell your friends if you’re not gonna be online for a certain period of time?
– have you ever tried to imagine your life without the internet?
– and more…

Dave and I also intervewed each other about our internet habits, and talked about how our internet-use relates to our mental health. While making this zine, my internet connection at home was disconnected after not paying my bills (broke life forever!), and Dave and I are both continuing our learning processes for how to use the internet wisely, and how to get the fuck away from it.

Get the zine here, and then get the fuck off the internet, for real.

Disconnectedly Yours,

P.S.: If you’ve benefited from my writing in any way – if my words have inspired you, helped you feel less alone, or sparked some weird feeling within you; if you’ve felt encouraged, or curious, or comforted – please consider compensating me by offering a donation of any amount. Whether you’ve been reading my writing for years, or just stumbled into me this afternoon, I invite you to help me sustain the process!