Denizens of the r/OffGrid subreddit recently debated the merits of living off the grid in a thread titled "Do you believe that being offgrid makes you smarter?"
Spoiler alert: They do.
"Since i have gone offgrid, im more mentally sharp. I detoxed from the internet," the original poster wrote (on the internet). "Did anyone else experience this change?"
Several commenters agreed, posting their own experiences of feeling smarter now that they have to insulate their own walls.
"Yes. Everything gets better," one commenter wrote. "You realize you don't need remotely near what you thought you did to be happy. Your patience grows."
"I think maybe not so much smarter, just more deliberate, self reliant and prepared," another wrote.
"Not exactly," a third commenter chimed in, explaining that they lived off-grid until health problems forced them to return to society. "It might make you more rounded, more versatile … intermittently happier. But it can also leave you isolated, super focused on solving problems nobody else has to deal with, ignorant of relevant developments in the default world, cold, wet, hungry, broke or dead because of something easily addressable."
There is no doubt that living off the grid — which, in the case of these posters, means no longer relying on the state for electricity, sewage treatment, and many other things we often take for granted (but still having time for the occasional Reddit thread) — is highly aspirational for some people.
Some of the benefits off-gridders like to point to, in addition to the enhanced mental health status they've diagnosed themselves with, are the long-term savings of generating your own power via solar panels, or the health and savings benefits of growing your own vegetables.
The good news is you do not have to completely remove yourself from society to do those things and get those benefits yourself. More and more people are investing in rooftop solar panels, and for those without their own roofs, there are community solar programs that allow you to buy into a nearby solar farm.
Growing some of your own food is also possible — and highly rewarding — even in urban areas with limited space.
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