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• collingswood.patch.com

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  National Day of Unplugging starts this evening. Did you skin just start to itch at the idea of not checking your email or voicemail or tweeting or posting to Facebook or uploading Instagram pictures or pinning to Pinterest or …

  That’s the point. Almost every aspect of life is taken over these days by technology and tiny touch screens. So the folks behind National Day of Unplugging want people to pledge to put down the electronics and log out for 24 hours, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

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• The Vancouver Sun

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Do you panic if you forget your phone when you pop out  to the corner store?

  Have you ever surreptitiously checked text messages in the middle of yoga class?

  Do you come away from parties finding you’ve spent more time sharing the evening with your Twitter network than talking to people at the party?

  If you answered yes to any of those questions, perhaps it’s time to put yourself to the test: Can you unplug from technology for 24 hours?

  I seldom do that – in fact my last digital detox — a six-week semi-endurance test that left people thinking I had dropped off the planet was almost three years ago. So I’m gearing up to join tomorrow’s National Day of Unplugging.

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• Inc.wire

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Starting at sunset tonight an estimated 2,000 people will follow a pledge to take a 24-hour “digital detox.” The National Day of Unplugging, which stems from a project called the Sabbath Manifesto, takes its inspiration from the Judaic principle of the Shabbat: “On the seventh day thou shalt rest.” The idea is to slow down, unplug, and reconnect (offline) with family and friends.

  Reboot, the nonprofit behind the project, caught some buzz recently when it sponsored a SXSW panel discussion called, “Tech Detox: Can You Survive a Day Without Technology?” At the panel, entrepreneurs and tech moguls discussed how they benefit from unplugging periodically from their social networks, laptops, and mobile devices. Later, Reboot hosted an “unplugged” party where attendees set the recordsetter.com world record for the most cell phones powered off at once. More then 150 people succeeded in powering off their devices for three minutes.

  Want to try powering down and being more present?

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• KTVU.com

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  An annual event that challenges people to unplug by going without cell phones and technology for 24 hours kicks off Friday night.

  It’s called “digital detox” and encourages everyone to up down their smartphones and step away from their computers for 24 hours, voluntarily. The national day of unplugging goes until Saturday evening.

  James Levanthal is a museum executive and admitted tech addict. He says he is constantly cruising his email, Twitter, Facebook and the web.

  “See! A couple of new messages came in since I hit the refresh button again,” Levanthal pointed out. “I’m usually on a constant surf from one to the other.”

  For this year’s digital detox, Levanthal is pledging to go 24 hours without his devices the first time. Ironically, the campaign was started online three years ago.

  Read the full post and see the interview here

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• examiner.com

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Besides Cuddly Kitten Day, National Puppy Day and National Chip and Dip Day, March 23rd is also National Day of Unplugging.

  While new-fangled gadgets and gizmos are supposed to make life much easier, for many people, it makes life a bit more complicated.    While all that technology helps us stay connected 24/7, it also keeps many of us disconnected from life! Between non-stop texting, emailing, Facebooking & Twittering, we just can’t seem to get away from being connected to everyone, all the time.  That’s where this annual holiday comes in.   Beginning at sundown today until sundown March 24th, turn it all off.  Turn off all those electronic devices for 24 hours – in a row!
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• JCC Association

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  JCC Association is partnering with Reboot for the National Day of Unplugging (NDU) this weekend. The NDU is part of a larger project called the Sabbath Manifesto, which encourages hyper-connected and frequently frantic people of all backgrounds to re-embrace a day of rest. The National Day of Unplugging runs from sundown Friday, March 23, to sundown, Saturday, March 24, 2012.

  Using the NDU an invitation to begin thinking about turning off and then connecting with one another, the Sabbath Manifesto can be something JCC members do individually, or it can serve as the beginning of an all-community program highlighting the benefits of slowing down, and unplugging.  It can be an invitation to examine the rhythm of our days and weeks; this is another way to think about Jewish time.

  The 10 core principles of the Sabbath Manifesto are specifically created to be open for unique interpretation by different communities. The principles can be practiced solo, or in a group.  It’s up to the individual to explore, refine and create.

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• 451 Press

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  A cause is being promoted to encourage people to unplug from sundown, March 23rd to sundown March 24th. It is being called the National Day of Unplugging and is referred to as a “modern day of rest” by the organizers. This same group encourages the tech savvy to disconnect regularly in order to increase the productivity of those times when we are connected. They even have a campaign called “Unplug and Eat Together” which is fairly self-explanatory, although they do add a bit of their overall philosophy of reflection:

  By unplugging from technology, people have a better chance of reflecting on their food choices. For the National Day of Unplugging 2012 we’re sponsoring an “Unplug and Eat Together” campaign in honor of Sabbath Manifesto principle #8, “eat bread” in conjunction with Slow Food USA and Hazon and numerous other program partners. We’re encouraging thousands of people tuning out from technology for the NDU to come together with family, friends and loved ones over healthy, affordable and ecologically conscious meals.

  What do you think? Would unplugging at certain times make you more productive over all?

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• Huffington Post

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  I asked my 17-year-old son this the other night. At first he said “no way.” Then he thought about it and said “yes, because it is Friday night to Saturday night and I don’t need to go on the Internet for school.” But when I said it meant texting too, he balked. “I could never do that!”

  I make my living promoting technology, but I am going to unplug. My husband is going to unplug and I am hoping my children can figure out how to unplug in order to experience the third annual National Day of Unplugging fully. I am going on Facebook and Twitter to encourage everyone in my community to take the causes.com pledge. We need a break, we need to unplug and get to know ourselves and one another — the real us.

  The National Day of Unplugging was created by Reboot, a non-profit organization that encourages the hyper-connected to take a respite from all things digital, to leave the virtual world and get real.

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• Airfoil

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Once upon a time people in offices across the world used technology to make themselves more productive. Then, at the end of each day, they went home and left their computers (what we now call devices) behind to rest up for tomorrow’s work.

  It sounds archaic – right? Seriously, how did we ever get work done back then? While we didn’t believe our parents’ stories of walking five miles uphill in the snow to get to school, our kids won’t believe that we were once forced to look up information in these massive books called encyclopedias.

  We live in the “Internet of things” age in which almost any object can be connected to the Web via Wi-Fi to transmit and/or receive data — from our cars, phones, tablets and houses to consumer-centric objects like scales, cameras, power meters and televisions. We even monitor the health of our kids on apps!

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• jewlicious.com

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  My name is Rabbi Yonah, and I am over-wired.

  Tethered to my iPhone. Waiting for the ding or buzz to announce some new tidbit of information. Someone re-tweeted. Breaking news from who-knows-where. Is that a txt message? An appointment?

  At the office the routine doesn’t change. Even on vacation, no roaming farther than my portable WiFi hotspot can find service.

  The intended consequences of our wired world creates such a host of distractions and interruptions that it’s a wonder some days that I manage to get anything accomplished.

  Even before I became a permanent IP address in the great server in the sky, I discovered the Jewish Sabbath during college and fell in love with unplugging from the info-byte matrix. Finding a home in personal connections and spiritual devotion provided an oasis in time to refresh my soul.

  While Sabbath observance is often dismissed as archaic, attitudes are changing as the pace of information and methods of delivery are unrelenting.

  I am not the first to realize that over-connectedness is a harmful side-effect of our digital world, interfering with our personal, spiritual, and professional lives.

  We are starting to recognize the dangers of addiction to being connected to a device-based community at the loss of real conversations and communications that take more than 140 characters.

  As a response, my friends at Reboot created The National Day of Unplugging, a tech-detox day, in 2010.

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