National Day of Unplugging - 2nd March

Yesterday (March 2nd) was National Day of Unplugging -- an idea created by the Sabbath Manifesto movement to highlight the value in disconnecting from our digital devices to connect with ourselves, our loved ones and our communities in real-time.

After using this day as a reminder to unplug for many years, I realised that this was the first time in 3 years that I've actually participated and unplugged for this day.

This year my wife Claire joined me in unplugging too, and we both spent the day with our Smartphones turned off.

Some observations:-

?? If you don't think you need to unplug yourself then I'd challenge you to go without your smartphone for 24-hours. If you couldn't bear to be parted from your phone for 24-hours, then you probably have a problem. Claire and I both remarked that we didn't realise how many times a day we reach for our Smartphones when we don't really *need* to -- social media being the biggest culprit.

?? It's much more difficult to go without your Smartphone for basic day-to-day life stuff than you'd realise. All our contacts, calendars, notes and everything else are stored in our phones, and it's definitely slower to do any day-to-day activities without those devices. Disconnecting makes you realise how dependant on these devices we are for the essential living.

Ultimately, the point of the unplugging day is to make you mindful of your connection with your devices.

Technology makes our lives easier, but I think we need to be very, very mindful of the effect activities like Social Media have on us.

I've observed some really sad, and in some cases, downright disturbing cases of people (including people close to me) who display all the signs of a real addiction to their Smartphone. I'm especially worried about the effect that Smartphones have on children.

I'm a geek, I love technology, and I love how technology can help us do things better, faster and cheaper.

But we need to be mindful of whether we're in control of the technology, or the technology is in control of us.

I think that disrupting our normal usage patterns through unplugging is a healthy reminder of our relationship with tech.