If you haven’t heard already, tech writer Paul Miller is back on the internet after a year of WWW celibacy. In his conclusive journal entry on The Verge, he’s not waxing ecstatic on the virtues of being wireless, but instead ruminating about how a year devoid of virtual communication burnt a hole of loneliness in his social life.

Congratulations, Paul! Welcome back!

I’d used the internet constantly since I was twelve, and as my livelihood since I was fourteen…I didn’t know myself apart from a sense of ubiquitous connection and endless information. I wondered what else there was to life. “Real life,” perhaps, was waiting for me on the other side of the web browser.