Choices.

The Verge paid Paul Miller to stay away from the internet for a year.

We have this urge to think of the internet as something that wasn’t produced by human agency, like an alien sewerage network whose filth has infected us and our lives to the point of disease. If someone has problems and they tell you about it, don’t tell me you haven’t thought about blaming the internet. I have, too. We think it is a constantly refilled dump that spills over onto our computer screens (while also hypocritically engaging in the rhetoric of how many opportunities “the social media” hold). And then, we realize that the internet is one massive improbably impressionable relay of emotions, propped up on infrastructure that simplifies access a hundredfold. There’s nothing leaving it behind will do to you because it’s always been your choice whether or not to access it.

In fact, that’s what you rediscover.

(Hat-tip to Dhiya Kuriakose)