National Day of Unplugging

I'm your huckleberry

Escambia County Public Schools (ECPS) will observe the ‘National Day of Unplugging’ across all campuses on Friday, March 7.

WHY IT MATTERS: To draw attention to the serious mental and social harm addiction to technology causes for our youth in the United States, ECPS will take a day to ‘unplug’ and focus on intentional personal interaction. Schools are encouraged to promote activities that bring students together without technology.

“It’s a small step, but an important one,” said ECPS Superintendent of Schools Keith Leonard. “Actually, this idea came from our Student Advisory Council, who collectively saw reliance on technology as a real problem at their schools. We are proud they recognized this and wanted to do something about it.”

Per Stephen Zauderer with Cross River Therapy:

Almost two-thirds of children spend four or more hours a day on their smartphones.
Teenagers spend an average of nine hours a day on their smartphones.
66% of teenagers feel anxious when they don’t have their smartphones.
The average person checks their smartphone in excess of 150 times per day.
47% of Americans admit they’re addicted to their smartphones.

Maybe we should join, put down our devices, and reconnect.

#Disconnect

In 2013, some members of the IN Staff took on the challenge of disconnecting from June 3 to July 3. We didn’t completely unplug. We figured that was pretty unrealistic, given that we have to use computers to make this paper. We also knew that we’d all quit by lunch on day one anyway. We like being connected and informed way too much to ever go dark.

From the issue: Instead, we all searched deep within our tech-addicted psyches and admitted to one technology/social media-related vice we struggled with and agreed to give that up. It was hard for some of us to realize we had a problem—which probably means those people have the most significant issues to deal with. For others, it was hard to narrow it down to just one platform or app. We were forced to answer the “why” question before we could begin the assignment. We just wanted to ensure everybody had a chance to learn something here. We didn’t want to be giving up Tweets in vain.

Some of us failed miserably and cheated on the first day. Some of us stuck it out to prove we could and returned to our over-connected ways at 12:01 on July 4. Some of us had life-altering epiphany moments where we saw the error of our ways and vowed never to repeat them. Well, maybe nothing that dramatic happened. But some of us did learn things and developed new habits that we hope will stick with us before next week’s issue is recycled and our time unplugged and forgotten. Read more.

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National Day of Unplugging

#Disconnect

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