The Slow Internet Movement

Last Friday, NPR did a story on the slow Internet movement. The story talked about how in hipster places like there Portland Oregon and Williamsburg, Brooklyn there’s a movement on to slow down the Internet. Part of this movement includes cafes that offer only dial-up access - smart phones are not allowed and the walls are lined with lead to prevent wireless signals. These cafes give customers “Slow pours and slow Internet. Here, you can order your coffee and spend four hours checking your email. All for .99 an hour.”

The story highlights an interview with a scientist who said that in studies of using “slow Internet our perception of time changes. When it takes a minute to download photo, we perceive it as four minutes. So while the slow Internet can’t make us live longer, it can make our lives seem longer.”

And maybe it was because it was a Friday night. Or maybe it was because we just got five inches of snow. Whatever it was, fell for this April Fool's story. Hook.Line.Sinker.

So fooled.

What fooled me was the way that even though the story was made up, I totally connected with it. Just hearing the eeerrrrreeeeewwwww noise of the dial-up connection made me remember the early days of world wide Interweb. I remember the feeling of dialing up, hearing that connecting noise, and then - boof! being magically connected to the Internet.

It was that process of dialing-up, of making that connection that made you feel as though were being transported, that you had moved to a different place, the online realm. And nothing was better at letting you know that you were someplace different that the eeerrrrreeeeewwwww sound of the your dial-up modem.

Fast forward to today. I carry the Internet in my hand. It is on my phone and I take it everywhere I go. I now need to make a conscience effort to not be connected to the Internet.

Having access to the Internet all the time, anywhere you go is a remarkable thing. I can find a recipe for dinner while I am at the market. I can immediately correct my husband with a simple Google search. Yet even with all it’s benefits, having total access to the Internet can sometimes blur your online life and your in person life.

If I am having dinner with my husband and I am Googling Shaka Smart at the same time, am I really present in that dinner? If I am checking email while watching my daughter on the swing at the park, am I taking in all the beauty of her at that moment?


A brilliant part of the April-fools story on NPR featured an interview with Alice Waters, who is a leader in the slow food movement. She said she wasn't surprised by the slow Internet movement, that it was a natural progression from the slow food movement. It’s about how we want to live our lives.”

I want to live my life consciously. In the olden days, getting online required the conscious, time consuming act of dialing-up. Now I can, and do, pick up my phone all day long and look for updates, for news, for messages. I love my online access, but realize I am often not making a choice to access this information, I am doing out of habit, or to satisfy some need for constant updates. Sometimes, I am not even really sure why I do it so often. Which is kind of the point.

Slow Internet, maybe not. But maybe less Internet. Or less need for the Internet. Or maybe, just being conscious of when I am in person, when I am online, and when I am badly attempting to do both, is enough.