At some point after the National Day of Unplugging begins at sundown Friday, March 23, Dan Fost figures he will reflexively reach for his phone. It’s a “siren call” he vows to resist.
A Marin-based journalist and former technology writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, Fost normally stays as plugged in as possible. But his iPhone, iPod and every other “i” will remain off for 24 hours starting at sundown Friday — a period that, not coincidentally, coincides with Shabbat.
The third annual National Day of Unplugging is a project of Reboot, a Jewish cultural nonprofit that seeks to reinvigorate Jewish life. The point is to disconnect from the ubiquitous electronic devices that run people’s lives — a digital detox, as promoters call it — and relearn the lost art of socializing with others face to face.
“It’s a great, wired world we live in,” says Fost, who will be participating in his second NDU. “You plug in so much and connect with so many people, but it definitely does get to be too much. Unplugging really helps you live in the present. You pay a little more attention to things around you.”
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