Offline Activities Quotes

Technology celebrates connectedness, but encourages retreat.

I like to [unplug] and enjoy being a human.

I'm not really about spending every second on social media. I think there's a lot more useful things you can do with your time.

I have no plans to use the Internet as the main subject of a novel.

I do like to get away from technology. I still read a lot. Having said that, most of my reading is on computers or a Kindle or an iPad.

I didn't watch TV or movies as a kid.

As opposed to being on the Internet, there's something really nice about reading a book or talking to authors.

The Internet is a big distraction. It's distracting, it's meaningless; it's not real. It's in the air somewhere.

My mum, who comes from Goa, wanted us to develop our minds when we were kids, so she used to turn the electricity off at weekends so we couldn't sit watching the telly.

Call me a troglodyte; I'd rather peruse those photos alongside my sweetheart, catch the newspaper on the way to work, and page thorough a real book.

The world outside Twitter was great. I read books. I reconnected with people I knew from real life and met them for drinks in person. Then I drifted back on to Twitter.

When you walk into a field office, you have many opportunities. We'll hand you a call sheet. You can make calls. You can knock on doors, and they'll have these stacks there for you. They'll say: 'Harper, you've knocked on 50 doors. That's great. Here's how you compare to the rest of them.' But it's all very offline.

I'm as far away from technology as possible. But I like to be as present as possible.

I just got a fortune cookie that says "Turn off your computer and read a book" which is odd because I'm WRITING a book...on my computer!

When I'm playing with circular saws, I'm offline (though often listening to podcasts) and when I sit in the cabin to read or write, it's wonderful to be offline for a few hours at a time.

You can't spend your whole life in front of a screen.

We spend our lives in front of screens, and cooking is one of the best antidotes.

I actually try not to go on my phone too much. That's something that's been a huge self-care move for me. I got rid of my iPhone, and so I'm actively working toward trying to be more present and not feeling uncomfortable when I don't have it as a coping mechanism.

Why do we feel the need to disconnect in order to connect?

I know to argue against our online lives seems like the argument of the grumpy, old Luddite novelist, but I really always try to make the argument from the perspective of personal pleasure.

I don't think it's more positive to have a Twitter account, a Tumblr, and a blog. Someone without those things will use their time to do other things, like read books or swim or talk to their children or read websites or listen to music or write books or lie in bed or sit in a chair. I don't think any of these things are more positive than any other things. I don't think having an internet presence helps financially.

Everyone is living for everyone else now. They're doing stuff so they can tell other people about it. I don't get all that social media stuff, I've always got other things I want to do - odd jobs around the house. No one wants to hear about that.

Most of the people who had PCs did not have modems and could not use those PCs as communicating devices. They really were using them for spreadsheets or word processing or storing recipes or playing games or what have you.

I don't spend a lot of time online.

We're in a digital age where it's cool to be on your iPhone all the time. All of out-of-school activities my daughter has such as piano one day and acting another day and dance another day are about getting her away from that. People are on video games and their phones, and it's taking up all their mental space.