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20 Days Without a PC

No e-mail, no word processor, no Google...no problem? Our reporter goes cold turkey and lives to tell the tale.

Scott Spanbauer

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My editor calls my cell phone while I'm out eating a chile relleno. It's odd to get a call from a computer magazine editor--e-mail is so much simpler. And his proposal is downright dumbfounding. Would I be willing to give up PCs and the Internet for 20 days?

The rationale behind the request: For its 20th anniversary, PC World wants to examine the PC's impact on our lives by yanking it away from someone who works and plays with computers every day. That sounds like me--I build desktops, schlep laptops, tweak Windows, download Linuxes, and (don't tell HBO) burn The Sopranos onto DVD. And I've written about technology for nearly as long as there's been a PC World.

Living without the PC would shake up my career, my leisure time--in short, my whole persona. Still, I'm curious: Would I be better off as an analog guy? I take up the challenge.

Twenty days later, I'm glad that I did. Sure, I missed Google, MapQuest, and spelling checking. But my digital exile had unexpected upsides--and it revealed how PCs controlled me, in ways I hadn't seen before. More about that later. First, a day-by-day report:

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