I stood on a ridge in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico, surrounded by pinyon trees and red-barked pines, listening to the trill of dark-eyed juncos jostling through the underbrush. Amid all this beauty, my phone chimed. And chimed again. And buzzed and beeped.
A friend sent an Instagram link. Uber Eats offered a discount deal. Target had a coupon for cleaning products. Someone drove by my Ring doorbell camera. Our lives are so dependent on the internet, the thought of living without it seems drastic. But I was ready to embrace a true day of quiet -- a digital detox day without the buzzing of the internet. Could I do it? Would I enjoy it?
At first, I was giddy at the idea. No constant interruptions? No news? No emails? Sounds great! Then, a fuller scope hit: No security camera alerts. No traffic updates. No remote monitoring of the foster cat's shenanigans. No streaming Eastbound & Down. So it was with a mix of anticipation and trepidation that I prepared for an internet-free day.
Locating local internet providers
My internet detox ground rules
The internet is so entangled in my life that I had to scrutinize what an internet detox day would even look like. I thought back to my childhood, to the death throes of rotary phones and how my parents would track appointments on wall calendars and plan car trips with paper maps. My experiment would be like time travel, a return to the olden days. So, voice calls were in. Everything else was out.
Here's what I did at 10:30 p.m. the night before my digital detox.
Locating local internet providers
Unplugged the T-Mobile 5G Home Internet gateway: This disabled my home internet, including Alexa devices, television streaming apps, the Ring doorbell camera and my Wyze security cameras. Down went the Wi-Fi for my computers, thermostat and smart plugs. I waved a temporary goodbye to my T-Mobile 5G Home Internet experience.
I powered off my T-Mobile gateway for a day. Amanda Kooser/CNET
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