Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been making a concerted effort to trim my use of the internet. My desire to do so is based on my intense antipathy and distrust of the tech industry combined with a deep-seated suspicion that no matter what we do where and when, an invisible (to us) set of eyeballs is watching and collecting information about us.

For this effort, I am using a process that I developed when I was in my twenties, and that I now employ whenever I want to change an embedded habit.

It all began with cigarette smoking, a habit I acquired when I was in my teens, and it was “trendy,” and everyone was doing it. By the time I was in my late twenties, I was determined to quit. And I did.

Step number one was simple to do but it was probably the most important step of all—paying close attention to my habit. When I was quiting cigarettes, this meant that I counted how many cigarettes I smoked. I counted the money I spent needlessly, and I made a point of sniffing my clothes, the curtains in my apartment, the interior of my car, etc.

It didn’t take long for the stink of cigarettes to become repulsive. (Cigarette smoking is really a disgusting habit.)

So to start my getting-off-the-internet project, I needed to ascertain how much time it was taking out of my daily life. Fortunately, I don’t participate in social media—no Facebook, no Instagram, etc. But for a week, without changing my habits, I kept a (handwritten) log of how much time I spent online with my laptops.

And even though I’m not much of a phone user, I recorded time on that tool as well. The effort made me very aware of the number of unsolicited texts coming in my messages and my email inbox.

In the following weeks, I obsessively unsubscribed, deleted, and blocked EVERYTHING that I truly did not want to read or spend time with. It took some time but finally all the ads that accompanied everything I ever purchased or looked at online were eliminated.

Next I made a list of everything I have willingly subscribed to and how much money I spend on subscriptions. Now some of these expenditures count as family support for nonprofits that are important to us such as PBS and the Vermont Foodbank, etc. And some of it is support for media that we trust such as The Guardian and Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American on Substack.

But much of the stuff in my inbox went unread, unseen and was, therefore, unnecessary. So that was eliminated.

I made a new rule for myself that my inbox never holds more than 50 emails (one screen’s worth) at any one time. In addition, anything that I keep “to read later” has to be gone in a week.

As a result, I don’t subscribe to anything beyond what I have chosen to read or watch. I consider my dance card full on that front.

Now some of the deleting was easy but some of it became a game of Whack-a-Mole because SPAM, the original unsolicited email, is still alive and well. In other words, you delete one SPAM and two more pop up.

By the way, did you know that in 2007, it was estimated that 85 percent of all email was SPAM. In 2026, that percentage is down but SPAM in your email still tops 50 percent. The reason you may not see it as often is that internet service providers have become better at eliminating it.

So what’s the result of all my efforts? It takes me far less time to read or respond to items in my inbox in the morning. Less time on the web = more time for me.

And I believe I am definitely on the right track with this extreme trimming effort as my suspicions and distrust of technology are continually reinforced by stories about the Tech-Bro oligarchs and the false promises of AI. (Here’s a link to a great column by Garrett Graff on the rogue AI that made the news back in July.)

I’m saving money by ignoring useless subscription solicitations.

Best of all, I feel less hassled and harried.

So far, I’d call this effort a win-win.