Going offline?! In this economy?!

Set Status: Online / S01E02

Author

Jomiro Eming
December 29, 2025

Spending time offline is supposedly good for us.
Everyone agrees on that part.

We’ve heard it everywhere. Unplug. Disconnect. Touch grass. Breathe air.
And yet, actually going offline feels strangely… difficult.

In this episode, I kept circling one question that wouldn’t leave me alone:

Why does being truly offline feel so hard now, even when we want it?

Offline, but still connected

Most of the things we call “offline” aren’t really offline at all.

Reading a book often means a Kindle.
Exploring a city means Google Maps.
Learning something new means YouTube or Skillshare.
Meditation comes with an app.
Dancing comes with Spotify.

Even when we try to disconnect, the internet is usually still involved somewhere in the background.

Which means that truly unplugging takes more effort than it used to. Not less.

Attention is the real currency

The phrase that kept coming back to me was: going offline in this economy.

We live in an economy where attention is one of the most valuable resources there is. Only slightly behind data.

Every app is designed to pull us back in.
Every notification is a reminder that something happened without us.

In that context, being offline isn’t neutral.
It’s an active decision. Sometimes it even feels like a risk.

Why leaving your phone behind feels uncomfortable

Try leaving your phone at home for a few hours and notice what comes up.

For most people, it’s not peace.
It’s discomfort.

Thoughts like:

  • What if something important happens?

  • What if I miss a message?

  • What if someone thinks I’m ignoring them?

  • What if I get lost?

That fear doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from being conditioned to be always available.

Not responding quickly starts to feel intentional.
Silence starts to feel like a statement.

Being always online isn’t sustainable

Most of us check our phones within the first hour of waking up.
Not because we consciously choose to, but because the habit is deeply wired.

Notifications, vibrations, glowing screens. Even on silent, the cues are still there.

This isn’t a self-control problem.
It’s a design problem. And a cultural one.

Being always reachable, always responsive, always online isn’t something our nervous systems were built for.

A practical experiment worth trying

Rather than trying to “quit the internet”, I suggest something simpler.

Take stock of the things you do to unplug.

Then list what you usually take with you to do them.

After that, cross out anything that relies on an internet connection.

Now ask yourself:
What would this activity feel like with only what’s left?

Some things will still work.
Some won’t.
And some might change in interesting ways.

The challenge is to try one activity this week with zero internet connection.
Bonus points if no devices are in sight at all.

Not as a detox.
Not as a rule.
Just as an experiment.

The goal isn’t to be offline forever.
It’s to stop defaulting to online without noticing.

Listen to the full episode

Full Transcript

00:01
We’re online. And so are you. Welcome back to Set Status Online. And in this episode, I wanted to chat a bit about something I definitely feel personally. And it’s this idea of why it feels so damn hard to go truly offline. And the phrase that came to mind was like going offline in this economy, which I think is quite relevant and we’ll get to that just now.

00:31
But I think firstly, I’m pretty sure we can all agree that spending time offline is healthy. I don’t think anyone thinks that offline time is unhealthy. We’ve all heard the podcasts, we’ve read the articles, we’ve had the chats that unplug, disconnect, unwind, these are all very helpful and important habits to try build on or build into our lives.

01:02
Especially in this digital era where so much of what we do is on a device of some sort. But so many offline activities, when I started really thinking about it, are still connected to the internet in some way, at least for me. And that really makes us need to take an extra level of effort to truly, truly, truly unplug.

If you read a book, if it’s on a Kindle, you need to download the book first.

01:31
Exploring a new city or a new location. I do this all the time. I walk around with Google Maps or ChatGPT. And Google Maps or ChatGPT, I’ll see a landmark and I’ll do some research on it or I’ll look at where I am. I’ll see a cool street name and Google it to figure out why it’s called that.

If it’s an arts and crafts session, I pull up reference images all the time on my phone that I found on images, or Pinterest or Instagram.

02:00
Learning a new skill. I will often watch a Skillshare course or a YouTube tutorial. If I’m meditating, I open a mindfulness app or play something from YouTube. Dancing, using iTunes or Spotify to play music. Even connecting with friends, it’s the easiest option to just give them a call on Signal or using cell reception on my phone.

Like so many of these apps are also designed, right? They are specifically marketing a faux offline experience.

02:31
The simple fact that we’re using an app to disconnect, like a mindfulness app, means that we aren’t truly disconnecting or unplugging.

And sometimes the truly offline activities require grabbing a physical book from the library or using a printed map, like parents used to do.

03:00
I still remember when I was a kid and we did family road trips, we always used to have a map in the car, like a book.

Printing out a reference image for an art session. Or meditating in silence. Or being somewhere in nature. Or meeting up with friends or family for a coffee somewhere to have those check-ins.

But I think back to this phrase that I think is so fitting of like going offline in this economy.

03:29
In an economy where our attention is arguably the most valuable commodity, right, only secondary to our data, we have to try really hard to set aside time for any kind of offline interaction when we disconnect. Like being offline, or trying to get away from the online stuff, nowadays requires a lot more effort than it used to.

03:58
And I think for me, at least, even putting my phone on silent or in airplane mode, it isn’t foolproof.

My phone is actually permanently set to vibrate. I think I haven’t had it off vibrate for the last five, six years, or even longer, to be honest. It’s never on loud. That little switch on the side of my phone is always down.

04:29
But I still see the screen light up on my desk or next to my bed, or I feel my phone vibrate when it’s in my pocket. There’s always this glance over to what’s just pinged, even though there’s no noise. It’s just a visual cue, or a feeling cue if it’s vibrating. But then again, it’s on my mind that something happened.

And aeroplane mode, I don’t think, really protects us from seeing the app icon or from the urge to just check something quickly.

04:59
I tried multiple app lock apps, like apps that lock your phone or stop you from opening apps after a certain hour. There’s always like an override function and I always end up overriding it. So those also aren’t foolproof.

I think there’s a couple apps actually that give no override function, but I see lots of flaws with that, especially if you’re locking things like messages or your phone’s ability to call, because I think that puts you at some sort of greater risk. But that’s another topic.

05:26
In an ideal world, we would put our devices that can connect to the internet in a drawer or in a cupboard while we take our dog for a walk outside, that it’s completely out of sight, out of mind, and even better, that it’s on silent, in airplane mode, in a cupboard, to really give us the feeling that it is gone.

05:56
But interestingly, and this sort of comes back to why is it so hard to truly be offline, leaving those things behind, leaving your phone at home when you go out for four hours, it’s kind of scary, right? It’s uncomfortable. And I hate admitting that, but I will gladly be the first to admit it.

But it does make me think why. Why is it so uncomfortable? Why is it scary?

06:25
And the things that come to mind are this feeling of FOMO, that we’re missing something that’s cool or new or exciting, that there might be an emergency, that we get lost and we have no way to check where we are, missing an important phone call, people even just messaging you and not getting a response and then they think you’re ignoring them and being upset with you.

Whatever it is.

But this all comes from this state that we’ve been conditioned to be in of always available, always online. And it really is not sustainable. Right, we cannot be always online, we cannot be always available.

07:18
I mean who doesn’t reach for their phone first thing in the morning? I’m sure there are super overachievers that have built habits around doing that, and maybe some people have better self-control than others, but I reckon within the first 30 minutes to an hour of waking up, everyone has checked their phone.

07:40
And this conditioning is partly due to the marketing of such apps. Things like Instagram, and even WhatsApp, are designed to notify, right? They ping you with news and updates and all those kinds of things. We are conditioned through design from these developers.

But then there’s also the societal thing of we have the ability to be online and things happen very quickly.

08:08
And if I send you a DM, there’s no way of me knowing if you’ve seen it. So then there’s this weird limbo state of, I assume it’s almost like Schrödinger’s cat, but like Schrödinger’s DM, right? Like it is both read and unread at the same time.

And then the assumption is: have they read it? Do they not want to respond? Are they mad at me? Did I do something?

08:37
So the urge is to respond quickly, and if it’s not an immediate response then there’s some intention behind it. It’s, oh, we’ve had the chat that I don’t respond quickly, or they’re not a close friend so they won’t have any assumptions about why I’m not responding quickly.

But practically, it’s not a healthy state to be in, I find.

08:59
And I’m talking a lot of the time from my own personal experience. I don’t think I can speak for everyone, but I do see this reflected in a lot of the people that I speak to.

But yeah, I don’t know, this online, always online thing really, really grates my tits, to put it very, very bluntly.

09:22
I try to respond to friends relatively quickly, but that’s more from a place of, you know, I’d like to maintain a connection with them and I’m excited about what they have to say and what I want to reply to them with.

But there is this guilt that comes with not being online.

09:53
And I see this as well when people take detoxes and they delete Instagram for a week, or they don’t open WhatsApp for a while. It is always the exception, right?

It’s either a case of, wow, congratulations, that’s really cool, I should do that as well. Or it’s a case of, they really need it, so kudos to them for doing it, I could never.

10:23
But it’s not a norm in culture to do those types of things, which I think is interesting. It’s interesting to think about why.

But very practically, I wanted to try and challenge myself. So I’m putting this out there for myself, but I would be very excited if you join me.

But here’s the deal. Here’s the game.

10:33
Do a stock take of what you love doing that helps you to unplug. Think about when you need time away from your screen or your phone or whatever the case is. What are those activities? Write them down.

And then, for each one, write an inventory for what you normally use or have with you when doing that thing.

11:04
So for example, if it’s going for a walk, I would say, you know, I put on my running shoes, I might take my dog with me, I’ll have my phone and my earpods, my earplugs, my headphones, whatever. Maybe I’ll take my house keys, my garage remote, I don’t know.

Write down all the things you take with you.

Then, once you’ve done that for all those activities, scratch out all the things that are in some way internet or online based.

11:34
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be the Bluetooth stuff, like if it’s a gate key, that’s quite important. But anything else that’s in some way connected to the internet, which is likely going to be a phone, a laptop, a tablet.

Those are the three things that come to mind. I can’t think of other ones.

Scratch those out.

And now, reflect on each activity again, right, and imagine what it would be like now, what it would feel like to do that thing with only the remaining inventory items.

Is it still exciting? Is it still possible?

12:23
And what I’m assuming will happen is either you’ll find something new to try out, a new way of doing that thing, and maybe it brings you closer to a truer sense of unplugging, or you might realise that you need to find some other things that help you truly disconnect.

So the challenge is firstly to do that stock take, but moreover, try something this week that involves zero internet connection.

12:54
And a bonus, do it without any devices in sight.

I think there is absolutely nothing to lose for giving it a shot. Worst case scenario, you don’t like it and that’s fine.

I think it is naive to say that being online is so bad that we have to get rid of it completely. I don’t think that’s possible.

13:23
But I do think it could be an interesting exercise, and even if it just brings a little bit more awareness into your relationship to this difference between online and offline, and through that maybe gives you the chance to go truly offline once in a while.

And I think a fun challenge might be to take a walk without your phone and without music and to just see what happens.

Could even be shopping, right, where you’re not necessarily needing your phone the entire time, or writing a shopping list on a piece of paper.

14:13
I think just trying those things out is, I mean it’s fun, but I think it’s also really useful, and I will try to be doing it more often myself.

I’m already putting some effort into those things like taking the book with me, finding a place somewhere in the park to read it, to leave my phone behind.

I still find that I’m very reliant on digital shopping lists, so that’s another easy one for me to go analog on for a while to see if it works.

14:43
But I think that distance is healthy, not only for our brains to sort of get a little bit of a break from the constant stimulation of what being online means, but also just to truly appreciate the gap between online and offline.

I think it’s easy to get sucked into online to the point where you forget what being truly offline means.

And there’s a spectrum of enjoyment, right? Different people will enjoy different amounts and that’s also fine.

There’s no reason to judge my version of offline to yours or to judge mine and compare it to yours.

15:31
But I think if each person has that awareness and isn’t just always going into default mode, I think that’s already a step in the right direction.

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