Off the Grid
stephenfry.com
Off the Grid
1–10 of 175 posts
Re: Off the Grid
#2The other day I suddenly remembered the door of my college room. Since I was at university pre-Internet, pre-mobile phones there was a piece of paper and a pencil on the door so that people who came round to find me could leave a message... by writing on the door.
Re: Off the Grid
#3The other day I suddenly remembered the door of my college room. Since I was at university pre-Internet, pre-mobile phones there was a piece of paper and a pencil on the door so that people who came round to find me could leave a message... by writing on the door.
Hah, that brings back memories!
Re: Off the Grid
#4The good folks of tumblr have a succinct counter-argument to suggestions like this. It is, and I quote:
"durr hburr technology is bad fire is scary and thomas edison was a witch"
Re: Off the Grid
#5Meta: I think the "Stephen Fry" in the title is very redundant, considering the domain.
If it really has to be there, it would (to my eye) look better to lead with it, i.e. "Stephen Fry: Off the Grid".
Re: Off the Grid
#6The good folks of tumblr have a succinct counter-argument to suggestions like this. It is, and I quote: "durr hburr technology is bad fire is scary and thomas edison was a witch"
Except that the author was an early adopter of technology. Definitely not a luddite.
Re: Off the Grid
#7The good folks of tumblr have a succinct counter-argument to suggestions like this. It is, and I quote: "durr hburr technology is bad fire is scary and thomas edison was a witch"
I kind of agree
"Not having an online presence" makes as much sense as "not having a presence at the pub" or "refusing to talk to people as a principle - isn't that so 'awesome'?"
It's fine, you don't need to be on every silly new 2.0 dot com, no issue there.
But you're shutting yourself out of a means of communication with other people. The fact that it involved technology is a detail
You can go to the pub and not drink, you can use FB with a fake name and not do anything with it and you can choose an email provider that suits you, but shutting yourself out does not make sense
Re: Off the Grid
#8When I was a youngin' browsing BBSes in the 90s, I remember distinctly encountering a text guide to "the art of disappearing", essentially getting off the grid as Stephen Fry mentions. It involved a whole bunch of seemingly paranoid steps, like burning your passport, and booking your flight (one-way) with cash. I also remember thinking to myself how silly the whole concept was - why would I ever want to do something like that?
These days, I'm realizing more and more that it doesn't sound that crazy in this increasingly dystopian world.
Re: Off the Grid
#9Goodness me, that's a lot of bloviation. I think there's a point buried in there somewhere that has been made far more succinctly by a lot of other people.
Re: Off the Grid
#10He's such an amazingly good writer.