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• ibtimes.com

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  The 2012 National Day of Unplugging will begin sundown Friday until sundown the next day and the challenge is to take a take a digital detox from everything in the virtual world.

  This year is the third consecutive National Day of Unplugging.

  This year, Sabbath Manifesto teamed up with Causes.com to create an unplugging pledge, asking people to take on the detox challenge. Sabbath Manifesto describes itself as “a creative project designed to slow down lives in an increasingly hectic world.”

  According to Causes.com, the National Day of Unplugging has roots in Jewish tradition. That website noted that this modern day form of rest was developed by Reboot in order to strike a balance in the increasingly fast-paced way of life. The day also aims to “reclaim time to connect with family, friends, the community and ourselves.”

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• idolbuster.com

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Ouch. I admit it, I’m one of them too, but I’m better than I used to be.

  When I left the corporate world, I was so addicted to checking email that I was on my Hotmail account every hour. Usually, there was nothing new except junk mail for Cialis or a Rolex watch. But I kept checking regularly for two weeks.  At that point I  channeled my addiction into Mafia Wars from Zynga.  Unplugging isn’t easy, and for me I was the only person I knew who was going cold turkey from an intense job.

  The National Day of Unplugging offers a chance to unplug from email as part of a nationwide community of people.  To participate, unplug sundown Friday March 23 to sundown Saturday March 24.  The event runs sundown to sundown because it is inspired by the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown.  When it comes to unplugging from work, sundown Friday is a perfect time to start.

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• HuffPost Parents

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Hello all fellow parents… it is now officially Time. To. Unplug. Maybe it was when I watched my 2-year-old at the park try to “swipe” a block of wood, thinking it was like an “iPad.” Maybe it was the feeling like I was never quite focused with my kids. Maybe it was the night where I was tweeting and texting in my dreams.

  I have been unplugging weekly for the past year for what my family calls our “technology shabbats,” and it has truly changed my life. I have tried to do this halfheartedly since 2005, but between Twitter and Facebook and now Pinterest, something had to be done.

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• HuffPost Healthy Living

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  As you’re reading this article, you might also be Tweeting about your less-than-mediocre visit to the dentist and liking a photo of your friend on Facebook, all while cracking up over some quirky quotesyou’ve been pinning. That’s a whole lot of on-screen activity!

  Friday at sundown marks the third consecutive National Day of Unplugging. For an entire day you are invited (better yet — challenged) to liberate yourself from the vices that keep you all too connected with the virtual world and less available in the real one.

  The National Day Of Unplugging allows us to connect with one another in a different way — off-screen: those who participate can feel part of a larger, connected sphere in knowing their peers are engaging themselves and their worlds in ways they often neglect.

  Swearing off technology doesn’t mean you’ll be sitting in the dark all day. Instead, you may actually be able to reach parts of your mind and soul that have been dark for a bit too long. Unplugging extends further than the physical function of switching off a monitor or powering-down a phone. It is a greater act that reminds us to disconnect from distractors and reconnect with ourselves — parts we often forget to tap into. Your unplugging will give you the time to recharge both your spirit and your soul.

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• PC World

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Do you think of your smartphone as an electronic leash or as electronic liberation?

  As someone who’s trundled both cell phone and laptop to baseball stadiums during spring training, I’m in the latter group. We’re the kind of people who think our mobile devices give us carte blanche to time-shift, stay productive, and be responsive to clients, customers, and colleagues no matter where our adventures take us.

  Not everybody thinks that way, of course. Consider the folks at the Sabbath Manifesto, who are once again this year applying the principles of the Sabbath. Emulating the Lord resting on the seventh day, all work is supposed to cease (“cease” being the translation of the Hebrew root of Sabbath, Shabbat).

  The 2012 National Day of Unplugging starts at sundown today and ends at sundown on Saturday.

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• LA Times

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Can you go for a day without your tech tools and toys? The third annual National Day of Unplugging starts at dusk today, so get in all your iPad gazing, mouse clicks, text taps and screen pinches before dusk.

  Organizers call the National Day of Unplugging “a respite from the relentless deluge of technology and information.” The intentional digital blackout goes from sundown Friday to sunset Saturday.

  Sound familiar? It’s in line with the Jewish Sabbath. That’s by design.

  The nonprofit Jewish group Reboot developed the movement to help people slow down from the fast-paced, always-on, always-distracted way of life and maybe look their loved ones in the eyes for a minute. (You know you’re really only glancing at them when you can pull your gaze off of your little screen or when you’re taking a picture of them with your smartphone.)

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• techlicious.com

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Studies have shown that the brains of Internet addicts are similar to those of drug and alcohol addicts. This weekend, from Friday, March 23rd at sundown through sundown on Saturday, March 24th, the National Day of Unplugging is offering us the opportunity to give our brains a bit of rest, take a break from technology and reconnect with our families and ourselves.

  Inspired by a group of young Jews looking to find new ways of relating to Jewish culture, the National Day of Unplugging was developed around the Sabbath. or day of rest. But the event is intended for everyone, regardless of religious orientation. As the organizers say, “we believe that everyone needs a day of rest.”

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• Flip the Media

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Because tomorrow is being designated by some as a National Day of Unplugging, where people who are typically wired through their cellphones, computers, tablets, etc., are being encouraged to completely unplug and be wireless for 24 hours, we’ve decided to take the day off as well here on Flipthemedia. That means no blog posts today, no missives from our Facebook or Twitter accounts and no bugging our leader in all things meta, Hanson Hosein, about what we should be doing instead. There’s (supposed to be) no way to reach Hanson during this time as he’s already vowed to unplug.

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• Care2

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  Sundown on Friday, March 23 marks the beginning of the third annual Day to Disconnect, when people are urged to turn off their electronic devices and, gulp, talk to other people face to face.  Begun by a Jewish group called Reboot to connect with Sabbath observance, the Sabbath Manifesto urges people of all faiths to take a day of rest from tech.

  Mashable quotes Reboot’s Tanya Schevitz: “We often seem to forget that we once survived without Facebook, Twitter, mobile phones and the Internet. The National Day of Unplugging gives us permission to unplug and recharge ourselves for just 24 hours. Everything will still be there when we return.”
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• JWeekly.com

  March 23rd, 2012 by admin

  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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