Revisiting the early 2K

Coming to say hi and stayed for the day

The year was 2005, I was finishing my IB programme before coming over to Dublin to start my degree in medicine. Internet was scarce hardly accessible, no broadband or high speed internet. Smartphones were yet to grace us and the culture was still very much phone call and SMS. We bought ringtones to our favourite songs and emojis were not even a thing.

The rediculously painful very slow dial up internet connection was the norm. Forget live streaming as it could take days to download a single movie and its beyond heartbreaking when the file downloaded crashed after waiting for like forever. We had to go to the cyber cafe/internet cafe for a faster and more reliable internet access.

Remember when MIRC was the cool place to chat and meet up instead of the dating apps.

20 years later the scenario is completely different powered by the technology advancement and its hard to imagine life without the internet. We are online way more than offline and the internet couldnt be more available than ever. AI is here and the quantum computer is on the horizon. High speed internet is thankfully everywhere. Most people have internet access on their mobile which is hugely important for almost everything work, entertainment, communication, shopping, searching and etc.

As my monthly internet pass expired yesterday, I gently ignored the usual temptation to renew it right away.

I love to see how am doing without.

Can I withstand the burns?

How long will I last?

Am excited to find out like am going back in time when life was a lot less virtual.

I have been mostly online for the YouTube and the odd searching.

I don't recall watching on YouTube too much back then when Friendster and MySpace were the dominant social network platform than FaceBook.

Am sure I be okay without internet and YouTube but I will keep my judgement open until I completed this fun challenge.

And the verdict?

5 days planned offline challenge done.

Overall nothing really dramatic. I thankfully wasn't bored or dying to get back online.

My internet consumption is just mainly for entertainment and I skipped on them for the last few days just fine.

I devoted the time to finish up reading a book which I bought last summer instead.

The fluffy Kekabu tree