scooterbug44
SoWal Expert
They were talking about this on the radio this morning - a mom got frustrated with the constant intrusion of electronics and decided she and her kids would go without for 6 months.
I know some Sowal families do this on a limited basis with a designated "electronic free" night each week.
Electronics continue to get more and more intrusive and are actively changing how we communicate, think, and interact - and not in a good way.
My sadness for those who are missing out on life because they are glued to their phones and frustration with the constant intrusion and downright rudeness that results from omnipresent electronics is well known.
What do you think?
Mom challenges family to unplug for 6 months - Health - Kids and parenting - msnbc.com
NEW YORK ? Susan Maushart lived out every parent's fantasy: She unplugged her teenagers.
For six months, she took away the Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones and video games. The eerie glow of screens stopped lighting up the family room. Electronic devices no longer chirped through the night like "evil crickets." And she stopped carrying her iPhone into the bathroom.
The result of what she grandly calls "The Experiment" was more OMG than LOL ? and nothing less than an immersion in RL (real life).
As Maushart explains in a book released in the U.S. this week called "The Winter of Our Disconnect" (Penguin, $16.95), she and her kids rediscovered small pleasures ? like board games, books, lazy Sundays, old photos, family meals and listening to music together instead of everyone plugging into their own iPods.
Maushart began The Experiment with a drastic measure: She turned off the electricity completely for a few weeks ? candles instead of electric lights, no hot showers, food stored in a cooler of ice. When blackout boot camp ended, Maushart hoped the "electricity is awesome!" reaction would soften the kids' transition to life without Google and cell phones.
Maushart realizes that living off the grid for six months is unrealistic for most people. (She also admits getting her kids to go along with it partly by bribing them with a cut of proceeds from the book, which she planned to write all along.)
But she encourages families to unplug periodically. "One way to do it is just to have that one screen-free day a week. Not as a punishment ? not by saying, 'I've had enough!' ? but by instituting it as a special thing," she said. "There isn't a kid on the planet who wouldn't really rather be playing a board game than sitting at the computer."
I know some Sowal families do this on a limited basis with a designated "electronic free" night each week.
Electronics continue to get more and more intrusive and are actively changing how we communicate, think, and interact - and not in a good way.
My sadness for those who are missing out on life because they are glued to their phones and frustration with the constant intrusion and downright rudeness that results from omnipresent electronics is well known.
What do you think?
Mom challenges family to unplug for 6 months - Health - Kids and parenting - msnbc.com
NEW YORK ? Susan Maushart lived out every parent's fantasy: She unplugged her teenagers.
For six months, she took away the Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones and video games. The eerie glow of screens stopped lighting up the family room. Electronic devices no longer chirped through the night like "evil crickets." And she stopped carrying her iPhone into the bathroom.
The result of what she grandly calls "The Experiment" was more OMG than LOL ? and nothing less than an immersion in RL (real life).
As Maushart explains in a book released in the U.S. this week called "The Winter of Our Disconnect" (Penguin, $16.95), she and her kids rediscovered small pleasures ? like board games, books, lazy Sundays, old photos, family meals and listening to music together instead of everyone plugging into their own iPods.
Maushart began The Experiment with a drastic measure: She turned off the electricity completely for a few weeks ? candles instead of electric lights, no hot showers, food stored in a cooler of ice. When blackout boot camp ended, Maushart hoped the "electricity is awesome!" reaction would soften the kids' transition to life without Google and cell phones.
Maushart realizes that living off the grid for six months is unrealistic for most people. (She also admits getting her kids to go along with it partly by bribing them with a cut of proceeds from the book, which she planned to write all along.)
But she encourages families to unplug periodically. "One way to do it is just to have that one screen-free day a week. Not as a punishment ? not by saying, 'I've had enough!' ? but by instituting it as a special thing," she said. "There isn't a kid on the planet who wouldn't really rather be playing a board game than sitting at the computer."
I constantly try to "de-television" my world, but am fighting a losing battle - in restaurants, waiting rooms, airports, etc.
