On Not Disappearing

I thought about deleting my entire online life.

YESTERDAY morning, I was seized by an overwhelming urge to delete my entire online life and escape (with P.) to an obscure little village (most likely somewhere in Spain or the south of France) to live an analog life. The realisation struck me—I had maintained a public online presence for 17 years. Weariness had crept in, and if I'm being honest, perhaps even a hint of boredom with it all. But upon further reflection, maybe boredom doesn't quite capture it. It’s more like a sense of ennui. After all, I had signed up for a free Blogger account in 2007—the same year Apple unveiled the iPhone—just to give you a sense of how long ago it was. I was still obsessed with my Blackberry at the time. In internet years, nearly a lifetime has passed.