It sounds to me that cutting himself off the internet only cut him off from part of his "problem". He saw the internet as isolating and causing him to not live "real" life. However, it seems to me that technology in general was his distraction. Is cutting the internet connection going to keep you from spending 8 hours at home playing video games? Probably not. I almost felt like he was cheating by listening to audio books, or watching tv or playing video games. The internet is simply an enhancement to your computer/phone/game console. It sounds to me like he spent much of the year depressed, and that he struggles with social anxiety.

Barring some catastrophic event, technology is here for good. Shunning it wont make our lives better, finding the balance with it will.

Sounds to me, like "the internet" (whatever this personificated entity might be) wasn't the writers real problem. Maybe he was asking the wrong questions in the first place. Maybe I am just reading too much into this. I don't know.

The strangest part was, when he wrote about is niece. Why didn't he talk to her in that year - do her parents not have a landline/mobile phone? What is the difference between the described strenuous phone-call and a skype-call?

Sorry, but I just didn't buy this part. It did not get me. His niece was right. If he would have wanted to talk to her, he would have found a way. And there are other things, I really didn't get:

If these special letters (between all the rest) would have really meant that much to him, he would have found a way to answer them.

But it just feels like, he really did not know himself before, during or after this sabattical. And he does not know himself (or his [perceived] problem) any better. Sorry to judge that hard, but this "journalistic" piece was really saddening me.

Sorry, but I take for granted the ability to be able to read some hundred pages of literature. Even Homer. Or Foucault.

Sorry, call me old fashioned, but I take for granted, that you listen when talking with someone.

And things like this.

"It's reprogramming our relationships, our emotions, and our sensitivity," said one of the rabbis at the rally. It destroys our patience. It turns kids into "click vegetables."

He seems like an introvert who was focused on the technology; I'm not sure he's the person I'd pick to have be the focal point of the story.