[viraptor]

Depends if you want to go through the pain of not having easy access to other services. Most government forms? You need to go to the office. Paying bills? Get on the phone / go to the bank. Contacting your phone company? I hope you saved the piece of paper with their phone number. Need a local plumber? Pay extra for calling number information service / get someone random without seeing any previous feedback.

Internet makes a lot of things in life so much easier. I'm probably going offline for a while soon. But that means disabling mobile data unless I really need it. Internet can still be treated like a utility - just don't use it if you don't have to.

[kfcm]

US-centric:

Paying bills? Crazy little pieces of paper called checks.

Contacting your phone company? Paper bills, or just write it down. Or, wonder of wonders, dial 611.

Need a plumber? They still have these wonderful books called The Yellow Pages.

How in the world did we ever survive prior to the Internet becoming more mainstream just 12-14 years ago? Now sit down and let me tell you about the prehistoric times called the 1970s and 1980s...

And get off my lawn.

[viraptor]

Yes, all of those things were possible before. But now they're easier and having internet access simply saves you hours and real money on the tasks like you listed. OP asked about it to limit distractions - but I'm guessing he'd be ok with having distractions if he had more even more free time for the reading and relaxing.

So the question is what's the goal? Forcing yourself to have less distractions, because you can't control yourself otherwise? Or having more free time? Using internet only when you need to saves you a lot of time.

Your response was an exaggeration - of course we survived before. But I'd rather make my live easier and just power off the devices when not used.