Let’s see, where were we…ah yes, subscribing to hard copy journals, and buying actual books as holiday gifts. As you may know, all of this Living Life Not Through Screens stuff is something of an ongoing project of mine. When I asked myself awhile back, “Self, how did you spend your time before the Internet?” I came up with a list and have been endeavoring to replace a healthy chunk of screen-time with some of those artifacts of habit from my old life.

I re-subscribed to a physical newspaper. To my surprise, this might be my favorite new old habit. The newspaper is portable and lightweight. It does not require a good phone signal. It has a pleasant smell. It leaves evidence of its existence on your fingertips. It can be spread on the bed on Sunday morning and not burn your thigh. If I read an article I want to share or save, I can always find it online and use the actual paper to line Peanut’s cage.

I started listening to whole CDs at a time again, not as background music but as a discrete activity that involves full engagement. There are different ways to do this: lying on the floor with your head positioned between speakers L and R is good, especially for Led Zep. If it is Richard Thompson, turn out the lights. Or shoot them out. You can also just put your feet up and read liner notes, study lyrics. Oh, wait! You can only do that if you buy the CD rather than a download! Yes. Exactly. Hold it in your hands and feel assured that you own it, and it can’t be taken away by angry Internet gods or a twelve-year-old hacker in Des Moines who creates a hard-drive-eating virus.

I write letters, delighting in my paper and fancy pens. Not a lot of letters, but a few, here and there, to people who like to write back. Imagine getting something in the mail that is not a bill or advertisement. Feeeels goooood.

What else did I used to do with my time, before 1995? I spent at least some of it feeling bored and lonely, two highly underrated states of being. More on that later.