The Sabbath Manifesto is a
creative project designed to slow
down lives in an increasingly
hectic world.
The National Day of Unplugging is on March 1-2, 2019. Join us in taking the pledge to unplug from technology regularly. Take the pledge at NationalDayofUnplugging.com. We want to know what you will do when you UNPLUG. Download the I UNPLUG TO _____ poster, take a photo with it and upload your image to NationalDayofUnplugging.com. Share your picture on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For our Sabbath Manifesto, we created 10 core principles completely open for your unique interpretation. We welcome you to join us as we carve a weekly timeout into our lives and to continue the momentum of the National Day of Unplugging throughout the year.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Leah Garchik wrote about Reboot’s National Day of Unplugging in her column.
“…And tuning out: Reboot, a nonprofit dedicated to reinventing Jewish rituals and traditions, is sponsoring a National Day of Unplugging, beginning at sundown on March 4. That’s in keeping with its Sabbath Manifesto iPhone app, which announces to would-be e-mailers, callers and texters that you are not available online during the Sabbath.”
Read her column here.
KCBS Anchor Jeff Bell interviewed Reboot for a radio story about the National Day of Unplugging:
While it may be difficult to do, a nonprofit is asking people to put away their cell phones, computers and not use social media sites for a day.
The second annual National Day of Unplugging is spearheaded by Reboot and is an ambitious effort to encourage people around the world to take a one day digital detox.
“To tune back into the real world around them that they’re missing in this deluge of technology,” said Tanya Schevitz with Reboot.
Schevitz said last year’s inaugural event changed a lot of lives.
“We’ve had people who say it’s made such a difference in how they connect with their teenagers,” said Schevitz “Taking some time to actually sit down and talk over dinner, instead of everyone being on their cell phone and texting and tweeting each other.”
The event was so successful that Reboot is bringing it back on Friday and Saturday, even introducing a smartphone app to spread the word.
“Believe me, we get the irony of using a high-tech app to announce a low-tech day,” she said. “But there’s not a better way to tell your followers that you won’t be on Twitter of Facebook.”
Reboot is also teaming with San Francisco-based VolunteerMatch, as a way for those participating to give back to the community.
The National Day of Unplugging starts at sundown on Friday, March 4, to sundown, on Saturday, March 5.
Listen to the story here.
In Psychology Today, Anne Fishel, Ph.D. and Tristan Gorrindo, MD, raise questions about “Fasting, Gorging or a Balanced Digital Diet.”
If you think you need a cleanse to clear out the gluttony of too much emailing, texting and using other screens, you may want to celebrate the second annual National Day of Unplugging, which goes from sundown on March 4 to sundown on March 5. This observance is sponsored by Reboot, a non-profit organization aimed at reinventing Jewish rituals and tradition. The idea is to provide a Sabbath, or a day of rest, when we will put down our iPhones, stop checking our emails, and let our calls roll to voicemail in the hopes that we will use this time to reconnect with our families and friends in a tech-free way.
But we think this idea extends beyond just a digital rest. Much like Earth Day, this day of unplugging brings attention to the issue of over-use that can lead to an unsustainable depletion of natural resources. Technology overuses the non-renewable resource of time. According to a 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study, teenagers spend almost 11 hours a day on a screen. What might kids do for a day if they unplugged? Play board games and musical instruments? Read a book? Talk in an undistracted way to a friend or a family member? Daydream or sleep without being interrupted by a beeping phone? And according to a 2010 Nielson report, American adults are spending almost a quarter of their time on social networking sites and blogs. Would a day of rest lead to having more sex, cooking, or face-to-face conversation?
Read the entire post here.
VolunteerMatch.org has teamed up with Reboot. Read about it below:
Unplug and Give Back: Join Reboot and VolunteerMatch to Make Service Part of National Day of Unplugging
Ever feel overwhelmed by technology? So do we. Reboot, a nonprofit organization focused on reinventing Jewish rituals and traditions, has a uniquely simple idea for Jews and non-Jews alike: unplug for a day.
We’ve partnered with Reboot to spread their message and suggest an excellent way for people to observe this year’s National Day of Unplugging (NDU): volunteer!
Read the entire post here.
Jessica Root of PlanetGreen.com is taking the Unplug Challenge for the NDU and she’s “confident it’s going to be awesome.” Read why she wants to unplug and watch for her blog on the Sabbath Manifesto’s 10 principles and ideas to inspire your gadget- and computer screen-free day.
Read more here.
The Atlantic gives the National Day of Unplugging a plug in its article: “People of the E-Book? Observant Jews Struggle With Sabbath in a Digital Age.”
The migration of print media to the web and digital devices has stirred society to ponder many Big Questions: Is Google making us stupid? Has technology short-circuited our children’s attention spans? Are we frittering away our lives gaping at smartphone screens? All this while the most obvious question goes unanswered: what will Jews read on the Sabbath?
Many observant Jews do not operate lights, computers, mobile phones, or other electrical appliances from sundown on Friday until three stars appear in the night sky on Saturday. They abstain from these activities because, over the last century, rabbinic authorities have compared electricity use to various forms of work prohibited on the Sabbath by the Bible and post-biblical rabbinic literature, including lighting a fire and building. The difficulty of interpreting the Bible’s original intent and applying it to modern technology has rendered electricity use on the Sabbath one of the more contentious topics in Jewish law.
E-readers are problematic not only because they are electronic but also because some rabbis consider turning pages on the device – which causes words to dissolve and then resurface – an act of writing, also forbidden on the Sabbath.
…This past March, Reboot, a New York-based nonprofit led by Jewish artistic types, launched its first annual National Day of Unplugging to underscore the group’s “Sabbath Manifesto,” an attempt to recast the ancient Jewish day of rest for the modern age. Jews of various backgrounds joined non-Jews in experimenting with the Manifesto’s principles, the first of which declared, “Avoid Technology.”
Read the full article here.
The Wall Street Journal says to take a tech detox — and notes that one way to do it is the Sabbath Manifesto’s National Day of Unplugging on March 4-5, 2011.
In a story titled, “Your BlackBerry or Your Wife: When the Whole Family Is Staring at Screens, Time to Try a Tech Detox,” the Wall Street Journal says that, “Like an extreme diet that cuts out all processed foods for a short period of time with the promise of lasting good health, a technology cleanse means you unplug for a short time with longer-term benefits for your relationships.”
Read the entire article here.
In his article, “What Happened to Downtime? The Extinction of Deep Thinking & Sacred Space,” in The 99 Percent
Scott Belsky, says that we are losing interruption-free space.
“In the digital era we live in, we are losing hold of the few sacred spaces that remain untouched by email, the internet, people, and other forms of distraction. Our cars now have mobile phone integration and a thousand satellite radio stations. When walking from one place to another, we have our devices streaming data from dozens of sources. Even at our bedside, we now have our iPads with heaps of digital apps and the world’s information at our fingertips,” wrote Belsky, the CEO of Behance and author of the national bestselling book Making Ideas Happen.
One potential solution he offers is the adoption of rituals for unplugging.
“Perhaps those in biblical times knew what was in store for us when they created the Sabbath? The notion of a day every week reserved for reflection has become more important than ever before. It’s about more than just refraining from work. It’s about unplugging. The recent Sabbath Manifesto movement has received mainstream, secular accolades for the concept of ritualizing the period of disconnection. Perhaps you will reserve one day on the weekend where you force yourself to disconnect? At first, such efforts will feel very uncomfortable. You will deal with a bout of “connection withdrawal,” but stay with it.
”
Read the entire article here.
Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University, author of “God is Not One,” and chief editorial consultant for the PBS “God in America” series, announced with seeming surprise, “I survived!” after taking the Sabbath Manifesto “Unplug Challenge.”
But Prothero didn’t just survive, he took the challenge we posed to him to sign off from phone and Internet for 24 hours a step further, going 32 hours without cell phone or laptop and unplugging from radio and television even.
Being unplugged allowed him to connect with his past — a tattered but loved thesaurus.
Read about his experiences on CNN’s Belief Blog or in the Huffington Post.
Frank Aldorf, executive creative director of the marketing and business consulting firm, Hubble Innovations with offices in Los Angeles and Berlin, was the most recent person to take our Sabbath Manifesto “Unplug Challenge,” shutting off his cell phone and computer for 24 hours last weekend.
Even though Aldorf, 35, admits he is engaged with technology almost 24/7 to connect with business partners and friends, to create and shape ideas, and for fun, he found the experience of powering down to be “fantastic.”
Read about his reflections in the Huffington Post here.