Anyone want to join me for the Offline October challenge?

As I’ve said before, I’ve got a love/hate relationship with the internet. On the one hand, it gave me a career, makes life easier in countless ways, and lets me inflict my musings on the God‑fearing people of Northern Ireland. On the other, it melts my head. The technical term for this is “it’s twisting my melon, man.”

For someone whose attention span was never stellar, the constant stimulation online feels like being an alcoholic at an open bar. A head‑doctor would probably shove me into the ADHD box – and a lot of that resonates, but I also remember life before the web. Back then, we’d chat in bars, stare out of bus windows, or read these things called books. Nostalgia does have its rose‑tinted lens, but let’s be honest: humans have always been good at arsing about. The difference is that now the stimulation never stops. Every waking moment is filled.

The first thing many of us do on waking is grab our phones. Our parents might have reached for a packet of Silk Cut, so perhaps this is progress of sorts. But then the noise begins: genocide in Gaza, the meat‑grinder of Ukraine, Trump’s latest idiocy, Stormont doing bugger all. And layered on top are the podcasts, YouTube videos, social feeds – constant noise.

In the UK, the average adult now spends around four and a half hours a day glued to screens outside of work. Ofcom reckons that’s about a third of our waking lives. Teenagers? Worse. Many are clocking over seven hours a day online, which is more than they spend sleeping. No wonder half the country says they feel “hooked” on their phones.

I’m reading The Brain at Rest at the minute, and its core message is that downtime is crucial. The brain has something called the default mode network—think of it as your personal assistant. While your conscious mind is at the never‑ending house party, the DMN is quietly tidying up: processing memories, connecting dots, sparking ideas.

If you don’t give the brain downtime, you end up overstimulated, frazzled, and burnt out. The fix, thankfully, is dead simple: do more bugger all. Stare out the window, walk, lie on the sofa, stroke your dog, cat, husband, or Beanie Baby – whatever. While you think you’re “doing nothing,” your brain is busy washing the dishes, filing the paperwork, and sorting through the clutter.

It’s a bold claim, but I honestly think overstimulation is the root of most of our modern woes. We drive our minds at 100mph and then act surprised when we’re knackered.

On a personal level, I need an intervention. Right now I probably spend twice as long arsing around online as I do actually working, which is less than ideal.

Mark Manson nails it with this line: “Beware: learning more is a smart person’s favourite form of procrastination.” That’s me to a tee. I can waste hours “researching” for work or Slugger posts, but in reality it’s just endless browsing instead of actual writing.

The worst bit is the nagging sense that life is slipping past while I’m scrolling. I feel like a digital veal calf, fattened on screen time. So many of us spend our days staring at glowing rectangles – it’s not healthy.

So, drastic action. I’m declaring “Offline October.” For the whole month, no online news, no podcasts, no YouTube, no social media. I’ll stick to newspapers, books, films, TV, music – the old‑fashioned stuff.

The aim? To give my nervous system a breather and claw back some attention span. If you’ve been hitting the digital free bar too often, maybe you’ll fancy joining me on this little experiment. Who knows – maybe the silence will be golden.

I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.