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• SF Chronicle: Politician Unplugs. You Can Too!

  March 25th, 2010 by admin

  San Francisco Chronicle Reporter Joe Garofoli writes on his political blog that CA Assembly Candidate Josh Becker was pulling the cord for the Sabbath Manifesto’s National Day of Unplugging.

  “Crowbarring a politician away from his phone/Blackberry is harder than prying a Democrat from Walter Shorenstein’s wallet. Yet at 7:20 p.m. Friday, Josh Becker, candidate for the 21st Assembly district, will hand over his Blackberry and his new iPhone to his campaign manager. He will swear off technology — no Facebook, no Tweeting — until sundown Saturday.”

  “Becker’s unplugging won’t happen a second sooner than sundown Friday because there couldn’t be a worse day — politically — for him to unplug. On Saturday morning, Democratic Party delegates from his nook of the state will gather in Los Altos to decide who to endorse in the Democratic primary.”

  “Snagging that endorsement could be a HUGE boon to a first-time candidate like him. But during the time that he would be calling, texting and F-booking delegates to the brink of being a noodge, the clean energy entrepreneur will be e-free.”

  Read the entire post here.

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• CNN Covers National Day of Unplugging

  March 22nd, 2010 by admin

  CNN’s Campbell Brown recently interviewed Sabbath Manifesto creator Dan Rollman and Happiness Project Author Gretchin Rubin.

  To read the transcript of the conversation Click Here

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• People of All Backgrounds Unplug

  March 22nd, 2010 by admin

  Nikki Medoro of Newstalk 1530 KFBK tells listeners of the Sabbath Manifesto’s challenge that people of all denominations unplug.

  Click Here to Listen
  

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• Jewcy: Shabbos is all the Rage

  March 22nd, 2010 by admin

  On Jewcy, Jason Diamond says he is embracing Principle 1: Avoid Technology.

  “Tonight, I’ll want to know if there are any more NCAA upsets, and even though I want to know who all my friends on Twitter think is the greatest band playing at SXSW, I’m going to let it go until Saturday night, because I like this idea of a National Day of Unplugging as part of The Sabbath Manifesto.  As someone who’s used the excuse of “I don’t have time for Shabbos” when asked why I don’t take part in one of my peoples greatest ideas, I have to admit that I’m sold on The Sabbath Manifesto.”

  “While I cherish and respect all the rituals involved with observing the Sabbath, this simple message of unplugging, relaxing, and unwinding, seems a lot more my style than lighting candles and saying prayers (but the drinking wine thing is always up my alley). ”

  Read the entire post here.

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• CNN: Reboot is Bringing Back Day of Rest

  March 22nd, 2010 by admin

  In her article on CNN.com, reporter Nicole Bliman said that the ancient notion of the Sabbath was created before life got so complicated with technology:

  “This was before Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerries and iPhones, of course. Adam and Eve didn’t have friends who would get upset if texts weren’t returned promptly, parents who wanted to know where their children were all the time or bosses who had complete access to their employees via work-issued devices. There is no excuse good enough to ignore the boss, even on a weekend.”

  “But one group is trying to take back the Sabbath: Reboot — a nonprofit organization aimed at reinventing the traditions and rituals of Judaism for today’s secular Jews.”

  And one person she talked with said that she would happily unplug if she told her friends and family via Facebook first:

  “Lisa Keller, 42, said she can easily go a day without using her phone. Asked if her friends and family would get frustrated by not being able to call or e-mail her, she laughed. ‘I would first put up a Facebook status to say I’ll be off my phone and computer for 24 hours.'”

  Read the entire article here.

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• NYT: New Take on Unplugging

  March 19th, 2010 by admin

  Michelle Quinn of the New York Times writes on her Bay Area Blog that the Sabbath Manifesto’s National Day of Unplugging finally hooked her with its Yelp poem:

  “I am typing fast because at sundown (7:20 p.m.), I plan to join in the first National Day of Unplugging and turn my electronic devices off until sundown Saturday. The effort, reported in The New York Times and elsewhere, is the brainchild of Reboot, a nonprofit organization of Jewish professionals who want to adapt the concept of Sabbath traditions to the digital age.

  I thought at first, yadda yadda yadda. Go ahead and unplug, everyone. But then I saw “Yelp,” the YouTube video above by Ken Goldberg and Tiffany Shlain. It uses Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” as the muse for a short video promoting the day of unplugging. Having just reread “Howl” for a post on the movie about Mr. Ginsberg’s life, I felt “Yelp” kept somehow true to the poem, even if the creators mixed Mr. Ginsberg’s visceral words with the less-visceral brand names of the soon-to-be-disconnected digisphere: Google, iPhone, Facebook.

  Read the entire posting here.

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• Mashable: Let FarmVille crops languish

  March 19th, 2010 by admin

  “A non-profit organization called Reboot has a mighty challenge for you this Friday night: Power down your cellphone, let your FarmVille crops languish and sign out of Skype for a full 24 hours. What do you think: Can you hack a single day sans technology?”

  “We’re seen efforts of this nature before — remember when John Mayer wanted you to make like a Luddite for the first week of 2010?”

  “But this event, which Reboot is calling The National Day of Unplugging, goes the extra mile with promotions (ironically enough) through Facebook, Twitter and a website called the Sabbath Manifesto (the day itself is part of a larger movement called the Sabbath Manifesto, a movement started by a group of Jewish artists, writers, filmmakers and social media professionals seeking to integrate traditional rituals into their modern lives).”

  See the entire post here.

  
  

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• Unplug: It’s a Challenge to Everyone

  March 19th, 2010 by admin

  Sharon Autenrieth writes on her “Civil Religion” column in the St. Louis Post Dispatch that she basically failed in her attempt to give up the television, the car radio and Facebook. But she’s going to try again:

  “…Sabbath observance should not be an exercise in negation.  The artists behind Sabbath Manifesto seem to understand this, and their Ten Principles are largely positive suggestions.

  “I know that I’m going to have to grapple with my technological habits at some point – probably sooner rather than later.  I’m not waving a flag and storming the Bastille, just suggesting that having 24 hours a week when I am fully present would…probably…be…good.  And difficult, at least in the beginning.  So with the full awareness that I sound like a hypocrite,  I recommend checking out Sabbath Manifesto’s website and videos.”

  Read her entire column here.

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• “Your It List”: Be Plugged Out

  March 19th, 2010 by admin

  ..It may be ironic, but this blog–a blog that relies on modern technology to pay the bills–is asking you to switch all that tech stuff off for 24 hours.

  Starting at sundown today, the folks at the Sabbath Manifesto are asking all of us to observe a National Day of Unplugging. Yep, that means no phone, no computers, no Blackberrys, no Sidekicks until the sun sets on Saturday. None of that stuff that is turning our brains to oatmeal and shrinking our attention spans to nil. Hell, half of you probably didn’t even read this far  (word #132) into this post. For those of you who did, I challenge you to watch this how-to video (all 3 minutes of it!) from beginning to end.

  Now hurry up and make plans with your friends and loved ones for tonight and tomorrow, because there shall be no Twitter, no Foursquare and no texting for 24 whole hours. Perhaps this movement will re-kindle the age old tradition of booty telegramming. Only time will tell.

  Read the entire post here.

  
  

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• Unplugging: Close to the Prescript for a Green Life

  March 19th, 2010 by admin

  National Day of Unplugging promotes rest, conservation

  Jennifer Grayson writes on the “The Red, White, and Green, ” environmental blog, that a forced respite from her Blackberry has been bliss:

  “Thanks to a technical issue that the geniuses over at Sprint can’t seem to figure out, I haven’t been able to receive emails on my BlackBerry for the past two days. For some, this would inspire a state of panic, but for me it’s been sheer bliss. You may be surprised to hear this, considering I author this blog and am fairly active on Twitter, but I’m actually a bit of a Luddite. I long for the days when we weren’t accessible at every moment, when face-to-face conversations weren’t constantly being interrupted by an incoming text, when we could just focus on the task at hand and the trees around us and not have to feel so darn preoccupied all the time.

  “…The principles of the Manifesto are pretty close to the prescript for a green life. Among them: nurture your health, connect with loved ones, get outside, avoid commerce, and give back. And let’s not forget the actual environmental impact that a day of technology rest could have on the planet, since information and communication technology contributes to two percent of global CO2 emissions — that’s as much as the aviation industry.”

  Read the entire piece here.

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