No internet 90 days challenge.

I canceled my internet because of a porn addiction (weekly/monthly relapse) and a technology addiction. A month later, I got a girlfriend and didn't touch porn for over 1.5 yrs. Canceling internet majorly helped. Just remember that if having a smartphone is a problem for you (mobile data), you may do well with a flip phone. Then you can still get texts and phone calls, while checking emails at a public library computer. The thing is, you need to either (1) not want to not access porn or (2) not have time for it. I have had the exact same conclusions as you - cancel everything. But if you have an empty gap of time, your brain goes "well, watching porn feels good" and then your brain starts already pumping chemicals as you open that new private browser. On not having time for porn - if you keep yourself busy, you'll come home feeling accomplished and will know that if you masturbate to porn, you'll feel energy-sapped again, and you'll avoid porn.

 

Yeah man,

There's an American Author Marie Winn, her book The Plug In Drug speaks on TV addiction and it's deleterious effects in children (and adults.) Apparently, she either had an essay or updated book that incorporates criticism of the internet/PC's.

I think it's difficult for many of us to eliminate the internet as it's been embedded in our political economy - most of us forget it's military technology developed by the U.S government. Its primary function was always militaristic and has been pretty much handed over to corporations (yeah, the corporate, government, military nexus.)

I've had inadvertent periods of no internet (only 3, 4 days up to a week) and it's been a blessed relief - all that electronic mediation gone. No TV, no Internet and I never cared about my phone too much. I will say that once something's embedded in your life there were either withdrawal symptoms or a sort of agitation as my structure was disrupted. It just feels weird not to have that technological/electronic mediation between you and the world.

Neil Gabler’s Life: The Movie tangentially (or maybe directly, I haven't read it for a while) addresses this.

Funnily enough I thought around April this year the UK government was supposed to block X-rated content at the provider level (opt in or something like that.) Possibly I didn't understand what was meant to happen, but I felt alternatively and sometimes simultaneously relief and trepidation (as I had a marginal, emotional attachment to porn -free speech didn't figure into it.)

 

This is a bot posting links to websites, why not throw it out.

 

Nowadays it's pretty difficult to avoid the internet due to it being a necessity for work and school. You can schedule your internet time per day such as when, where and how you use it. I recommend two books by Cal Newport: Deep Work and Digital Minimalism if you want to learn how to regain back your true life.