What Does Off the Grid really mean?

People come up with terminologies or new meanings to existing words that we already use. Other meanings of words are modified to apply to a current situation and some are combined to create a slang of an old word. A term may mean differently a decade before and it may have a different definition today.

What does off the grid mean?

According to the urban dictionary, off the grid means untraceable, unrecorded through normal means if used as an adjective. Another meaning is, it is a term for a person who is not on a social networking site. Third definition in the urban dictionary is that off the grid may mean living without using the services of public or private utility companies or grids, such as gas, electric or water by generating and providing for one’s basic needs such as solar power or any other resourceful means.

Off the grid term can be associated to a person who refuses all recordable common forms of commerce, such as refraining any form of credit extension, banking services or reportable payroll activities. These people use only cash to any transactions to avoid being traced. Simply put, living completely ‘underground’.

What does off the grid mean on foursquare?

When you have a foursquare account, usually it shows your check ins on different locations to your foursquare friends. “Off the grid” on foursquare means that your location is not seen. You have an option on every check in to enable or disable the location information. You would want to check in “off the grid” if you are at an adult toy store, you are with your divorce attorney, on the jail or someplace that you don’t want other people to know about.

What if you fall off the grid?

When you are falling off the grid, it may connote negative ideas, but some journalists or psychology researchers think that falling off the grid can be good for the soul. Some were happier falling off the grid especially for those people who are used to living in a hectic lifestyle.

One person started putting away the television. She realized that this simple act has had a profound effect on her family. They no longer hurry to finish dinner for them to watch the evening news. This person discovers a space in her brain to consider the things she believed she was too preoccupied to consider.

A person’s interest on whatever is going on in the television is consequently waning. Instead of staring at the television, their family play, read, talk and laugh more which has a good psychological and emotional effect especially to the children. This person concludes that a TV-free life is good. Falling off the grid doesn’t mean shutting everyone out, it may mean simplifying life, minimizing using appliances to interact more with people. You can just think of it as like living the same way people lived from decades ago did. Others may find the attempts to dangle off the grid unnecessary, in an age when appliances, information and grocery stores abound. But unknowingly, it can contribute in having a more nourished family relationship.