A day to release yourself from the cyber addictions.
BLOG: Valley View
By Zenobia Khaleel
SAN FRANCISCO: The summer solstice is way ahead, but for some of us, March 2 is going to be one long day. Friday, March 1 to Saturday, March 2 (sundown to sundown), marks the National Day of Unplugging. A day to release yourself from the cyber addictions that keep you connected with the virtual world and disassociated in the real one. Developed by the non-profit organization Reboot, the National Day of Unplugging is an ingenious concept that encourages people to wind down and recharge their lives by limiting the use of technology.
I was tempted to dismiss the news when I read about this project online, ironically. Tech addiction does not hold the severity of drug or alcohol abuse, to have a whole day devoted to it. But the more I read about it, I realized we are half way there.
Consider these facts:
- The average American watches more than 151 hours of TV.
- A Whopping 84% are confessed PDA-holics; they check their PDAs just before going to bed and as soon as they wake up. In some cases, even in the middle of the night.
- In a study where college students went 24 hours abstaining from any media or tech devices, they described their feelings as: withdrawal, frantically craving, miserable, jittery, and crazy.
Do these malaises sound familiar?
- Neck and shoulder pain from all the texting
- Backache and spine problems resulting from being hunched over a computer
- BlackBerry thumb
- Texting while driving, and having an accident (or a near miss)
- Gaining weight; overeating when tense, and forgetting to exercise
- Migraine
A private survey of my home front revealed that my family fared no better than the average American home.
Five technological devices are perpetually turned on in my house to entertain and cause a tech induced ADD in my three children. My romantic imagery has undergone a drastic makeover from SRK and Kajol running through fields; to two people huddled in a blanket, frenetically punching away into their PDAs.
For those of you who (like me) are apprehensive about pledging a whole day to much-needed digital detox, you have good news. You get to set your pace in this workout. The rationale behind this project is to evaluate the time we spend on our Internet urges and use that time to explore unwired creative pursuits.
You can quit cold turkey. Translated: no E-mail, no Twitter, no Facebook, no Pinterest, Google, YouTube. No Internet.
Or, you can start with baby steps. Find the balance that works for you and create your own rules.
Good resolve firmly in check, the challenge then lies in the productive use of the hours gained by abstention from Facebook and Oscar videos. To avoid pitfalls, some pre-planning is required. Renew your long expired newspaper subscription, unplug all your media devices and update your social networking sites about your downtime. Well-meaning followers and stalkers may misconstrue your inactivity for some calamity. There is an app that reminds you to unplug at midnight (again, the irony is not lost).
My most Herculean task was to convince my family to get on board. My suggestion to turn off the Wi-fi almost resulted in a mutiny. Finally everyone resolved to cut some corners and also came up with some good suggestions to make the most of the day.
- Cook a family meal together. I am not really excited about this prospect, since it includes the snag of an epic Facebook share.
- Go on a hike, leave the iPods, and the earbuds behind, and listen to the birdcalls and the sound of the flowing streams instead.
- Help with the kids’ assignments. The Google handicap will lead to a trip to the library, and we can reconnect with books.
- The all-time favorite Board games will depend on finding a game with all the pieces intact.
Digital detox events are cropping up in and around SFO. These off-the-grid parties have mobile stations at the entry (to check in your mobile devices), vinyl music, art and craft centers, portrait drawing, and other activities that take the analog momentum to the social sphere.
Now that I have charted my course, the day of digital wilderness doesn’t loom so large. Bring it on; I have all my Jenga blocks stacked.
(Zenobia Khaleel has donned a lot of hats; writer, photographer, travel enthusiast, troop leader, amateur actor, event coordinator, community volunteer, but predominantly goes by the title Mom.)
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