I completely gave up using the internet for 5 days - and it was way harder than I could have ever imagined

• I stopped using the internet for five days to see how hard it would be.
• By the end of the five days, I had realized how seamlessly the internet had crept into every aspect of my life, from exercising to driving to choosing a restaurant.
• I won't completely give up the internet for good, but I did learn to balance out my internet usage better.
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My name's Dave, and I have an addiction.

I am powerless against the lure of the internet.

That's why, when my editor offered me the opportunity to stop using it - cold turkey - for five solid days, I counterintuitively leaped at the chance.

Would I be able to resist spending hours a day on Facebook, Quora, Apple News, and YouTube? How would I fill my day? Would I be more productive, or less? And what lessons would I be able to take away with me after the torture - I mean assignment - was over?

I didn't grow up in the internet age. In fact, I can still remember the first time I installed the Mozilla browser on a PC and explored the nascent World Wide Web. But I eagerly embraced the internet, simultaneously telling people, "this will fundamentally transform everything we know," and not really understanding what that might eventually mean. And now that the internet has changed me, I wanted to know if that was for the better.

The experiment ran from Wednesday through Sunday so that I'd be able to assess both workdays and a weekend. But because I am a journalist and can't completely unplug, I had to talk out with my editor what was an acceptable use of the internet.

Like an addict bargaining with a counselor, we laid down ground rules. No email, with one exception: I could send and receive business emails related to other assignments. Phone calls were obviously OK, but FaceTime was off-limits. No news, social media, or web browsing.

Basically, if it happens on or via the internet, it was a "no." And off we went.