Go through that exercise of ditching that email. You will find out the 2-3 things you need absolute plan a/b/c for.
Seriously, reset your email password to something you can never remember and write it down and have someone hold it for a month (don’t tell them what is it, tuck it in an envelope). Let your mind run circles around your fears and you’ll find out how little that email account owns you.
Freezing one credit card will shut off all your frivolous subscriptions (Spotify, Netflix, Prime).
You’ll call your internet provider because you don’t want that cut off.
You’ll call your bank, brokerage.
You’ll remember your bosses contact info, and the one person at work you trust.
You’ll let the most important people know (could be as few as one) that you’re off the grid, in your terms. You’ll memorize their number.
You’ll realize all the people you could care less about, or they about you, if neither of you ever heard from each other again.
Kind of a freeing thing. Then you’ll make a new email, and you’ll never add that much cruft to it ever again.
If it is just an inconvenience, then this exercise is unnecessary. This is more for those who believe they cannot survive without it (inconvenience vs survival).
Look, it’s one thing to say “I cannot live without my kids”, and have some asshole say “ditch them. Move, adopt new ones, you’ll see how stupid that attachment is”.
You guys are literally acting like e-mail is some cornerstone of a life well lived.
I’ll agree with the insufferable part though :)
The rest of your comment, I’ll just attribute to you projecting, which we all do, no one is better.
You're the one attaching moral judgements to it. Speaking of projecting.
We're just saying that email is either necessary or a massive increase in convenience for engaging in a wide array of common digital interactions, including some that are extremely hard to get away from (utilities, banks, etc), and others that are part of what makes life worth living, rather than just subsistence survival (streaming services, online games, other luxuries).
Doing without something that's technically possible to avoid, but wastes a whole lot of your time and mental energy, and does not materially harm you in any way, does not make you a better person. Nor does it make you a worse person. It's something that's a personal choice.
Smugly presenting yourself as somehow better than us because you do without such things does make you a worse person.
I think you are just wrong. I simply provided some advice to someone who feels they can’t do without something that is possible to do without (or at least in a much more reduced manner).
But I do like the irony, some of you inferred I said “I am better than you”. The words are written by you - “makes you a worse person”, which I don’t need to make any inference on, I know what you said.
I’d give the same advice to anyone that believes they can’t live without coffee. Whether they drink it or not is none of my business, but their exclamation of an impossibility is something I might chime in on.
Start the thread again, I picked a specific thing to address with the GP. Don’t care if he/she uses email, the whole world uses email lol.
Just for shits and giggles:
I get a few text alerts from my bank, I check things out with the bank app. I read the utility mail (yes the paper bill) once a month. No email involved. If I lost my email, my bank and electricity would be fine. So would my internet. It’s not impossible.
Morality seeping into this discussion and holier than thou interpretations (casted on to me), are interesting and I’ll consider everyone’s input carefully and adjust going forward.
I see you are getting a lot of negative comments so wanted to let you know I agree this is a good thing. Creating chaos is the only way to take away power from digital bureaucracy and surveillance systems. Make multiple conflicting linkedin profiles in your name, share a WhatsApp account with friends, delete and recreate your Instagram profile every year.
> "Let your mind run circles around your fears and you’ll find out how little that email account owns you."
This year I have recieved an email from a city councill if a city where I no longer live, that were about to sue me for underpaying some
bill years ago.
If I followed your advise I would be on the hook for serous money and headache
That email could have been sitting in your junk folder for all you know. Even with access to your account it would have been a dumb way to serve someone a summons.
Following my advice or not, email could have still fucked you.
No, it sucks. A summons usually requires them to serve it for-sure somehow (in-person or someone in your home that accepts it for you).
They had no idea where you were, so you fell for the pre-action letter. They would have never gone through the trouble of where-in-America—are-you to sue you.
It’s all perspective. I think your phone number is more like water. If anything happens to your phone, you can simply take one physical trip down to your carriers store and get a new one with the same number. That’s water.
A bunch of email accounts that your whole life is tied down to where you can’t even get someone on customer service on the line 24/7? No, that’s Soda.
I’m just saying, this is the diet equivalent of giving up sugary drinks and switching to water.
It's actually an exercise in True freedom, trying to detach your life from all socials/spaces
Remove/minimize socials, move to multiple countries more than a couple times a year. form new friend groups/communities, learning to min-max essentials
Diet: try fasting, appreciate simple meals after a lengthy fast
Exactly! Good one. People just don't realize how much of this stuff is just jetsam and dross.
What the hell would happen if the service ever seriously failed for long periods or GPS failed overnight (which it easily could)? People would have to resort to what they did pre-internet. Back then, the world still worked (and some would argue even better because the internet 'toy' wasn't around to distract everyone and wreak havoc on the world).
Believe it or not, we actually built the modern world without email and the smartphone.
Seriously, reset your email password to something you can never remember and write it down and have someone hold it for a month (don’t tell them what is it, tuck it in an envelope). Let your mind run circles around your fears and you’ll find out how little that email account owns you.
Freezing one credit card will shut off all your frivolous subscriptions (Spotify, Netflix, Prime).
You’ll call your internet provider because you don’t want that cut off.
You’ll call your bank, brokerage.
You’ll remember your bosses contact info, and the one person at work you trust.
You’ll let the most important people know (could be as few as one) that you’re off the grid, in your terms. You’ll memorize their number.
You’ll realize all the people you could care less about, or they about you, if neither of you ever heard from each other again.
Kind of a freeing thing. Then you’ll make a new email, and you’ll never add that much cruft to it ever again.