New York Times Reporter Matt Richtel writes in the Bits blog that the new Sabbath Manifesto app is the “last smartphone app you will ever need. Well, more like the last app you will use for at least 25 hours.”
It’s called the Sabbath Manifesto app, and it is meant to be a way to make a pledge to disconnect from technology.
The brainchild of a Jewish organization called Reboot, the Sabbath Manifesto app encourages people (of all faiths or none at all) to participate in a one-day movement away from technology. This National Day of Unplugging is scheduled for March 4 to 5, as a way for people “to return to the values inherent in a modern day of rest: reconnecting with family, friends and the world around them,” according to Reboot.
…This is the second annual unplugging day organized by the group. Last year, the group claimed that it inspired digital downtime among millions of people of various faiths. Who knows? It’s hard to measure downtime the same way you measure site traffic.
It’s also a bit hard to get your head around the idea that, this year, the group wants people to declare their devotion to downtime using an app.
“Believe me, we fully get the irony of using a high-tech app to announce a low-tech day. But really, what better way to tell your followers that you won’t be tweeting on the weekend,” wrote a Reboot spokeswoman, Tanya Schevitz, in, of course, an e-mail. She adds that, while the group isn’t anti-technology, it hopes people will consider logging off more often: “A pause from technology once a year is not enough.”
Read the entire blog here.