By Justine Clay
image courtesy of allposters.com
Even though I don’t consider myself to be a tech geek at all, it’s amazing how much of my life I spend gazing at one screen or another. Based upon space limitations and convenience I stopped buying paper books, downloading them onto my ipad instead. Newspaper subscriptions: ditto. And while this makes life a lot more convenient (I could never manage the New York Times on the subway – it was always a disaster), I’m starting gravitate back to paper. I really miss reading a book in bed and reading the Style Section on Sunday just isn’t the same on an ipad. And don’t even get me started about how much I miss bookstores.
So, while I’m very grateful for their convenience, I was really drawn to the idea of a ‘technology shabbat’ as described by Tiffany Shlain – filmmaker, artist and founder of the Webby awards. Every Friday night Tiffany and her family light candles and turn off all of their devices. They stay offline for all of Saturday until after sundown. Tiffany says this ritual is ‘like hitting a reset button on my sense of balance. It has changed my life profoundly’
Doesn’t that sound like a tempting idea? I’m sure it would be tough at first, like giving up chocolate for lent, but I bet you’d get used to it.
Would you try it?