I am back from 45 offline hours on the weekend.
Two 35 mm films have been sent off to the development studio and I am anxiously waiting for the prints and scans to come back. I truly enjoyed the analog photography which included figuring out some of the equipment (picture, real pictures follow when I get them).
In order to get the full experience, I didn't just go into flight mode but left the phone at home altogether. The car GPS pointed to a rather remote location and I reached the house at 8:30 pm on Friday. The road had turned into a tiny path covered by snow and ice and I had to switch the car to extended ground clearance. When I arrived at the destination (at 6000 ft alt) the house was dark and empty. Without a phone, the choices were to either wait and trust the instructions or drive back. That reminded me of some dates in pre-phone times ;-).
The weekend was fantastic. We played music, went for a snowshoe walk, got to know each other better, cooked, chilled. All of us were fully present with zero virtual interruptions. I was grateful to have shared the weekend with offliners.
I did not really miss the phone or the internet. I attribute this partially to the fact that my life is currently free from any sort of crisis.
One of my friends said that the missing phone felt like a phantom limb. He would reach out for it just realizing once more that there was nothing. And there is this amazing experience shared by Aurelie: I was expecting it to be so hard, but... it was so easy! The time flew by.
I will continue to follow the movement on reddit.
