The iDiet

On May 1, disenchanted with Charter’s $65/month internet-only wealth extraction service, I embarked upon a Great Experiment. Partly as an exercise in parsimony, but also as a matter of principle, I wanted to prove to myself that I could live and live well on a mere three to four gigabytes of purchased data per billing cycle. The modem and I parted ways at a UPS Store in short order, and today I buy cell data from Republic Wireless at the rate of $5/gigabyte. True, this has meant tethering the laptop to a phone for email and other lean essentials, and cold-turkey farewell to luxuries like YouTube, but here’s the curious thing: After over two months without residential broadband, I’m less inclined than ever to resubscribe.

First of all, as predicted, I’m saving between 50% and 75% over the cost of Charter, and any heavy data lifting I need to do can be accomplished inside the free wi-fi environments I visit almost daily, no fewer than ten of which lie within a four-block radius of my flat.

Second, not as predicted, but as suspected, unlimited data had become a big, fat monkey on my back, which is to say I was spending way too much time clicking lolcat links and watching angry progressives denounce capitalism on YouTube. Now I use that time to read and write and walk and contemplate my navel chakra. And need I mention that I live with a non-virtual lolcat from whom the lols flow quite freely, except when she’s asleep, which is often, but sometimes even then.

No doubt it’s easier for someone with my penchant for asceticism to push the digital plate away than it might be for others. Facecrack addicts, for example. And location, location, of course. Not to mention age. But it can be done, my friend. That’s all I’m saying. It can be done.

(And to those who came here hoping for a Dostoevsky pun, I apologize.)