Out of curiosity, how many of you reading this think you could last one day without technology? No cell phones, iPods or computers for one day.
Reboot, a nonprofit organization which aims at reviving today’s Jews to traditional Judaism, is promoting just that with their National Day of Unplugging campaign.
Now I know the vast majority of students on campus would not claim to be Jewish, but living in the Bible Belt, I bet most would claim to be religious. And while Reboot is pushing to take back the Sabbath and make it holy once again, I believe the principals behind the movement are important for everyone.
These days it seems you can’t go anywhere without seeing people glued to their technology – always on the phone, earphones on, typing away . disconnected from people around them. What would happen if we all took a break for one day? This isn’t a revolutionary idea; others have said the same before. What would be revolutionary is if everyone did it. Reboot encourages people to live by 10 principles on this separated day called The Sabbath Manifesto. I don’t think all of them are relevant to all people, but there are several I think everyone should keep in mind:
Avoid technology
Connect with loved ones
Nurture your health
Get outside
Avoid commerce
Find silence
Give back
How often do we do these things? When was the last time we had a real conversation with someone about how they are? Not just a, “Hi. How are you?” in passing, but an in-depth “Where are you in life?” discussion?
It seems in this day and age, no one even knows the true meaning of silence anymore. Even when we’re alone, we’re listening to music or mindlessly watching television. Do we even know how to sit still? These principles are things we should live by every day, but if we actually did them one day a week I think we’d see a change in ourselves – less stressed, more relaxed, more connected to the people around us.
Dan Rollman, who created the Sabbath Manifesto, said, “There’s clearly a social problem when we’re interacting more with digital interfaces than our fellow human beings. Rich, engaging conversations are harder to come by than they were a few years ago. Our attention spans are silently evaporating.”
If that doesn’t speak volumes of truth about our society, I don’t know what does.
We become so caught up in ourselves during the week. We think of all we have to do, what our plans are, where we need to go that we forget to care about anything else. Reboot is calling us to try living a different way – to stop being so selfish and narcissistic and to actually build relationships with something other than our iPhone. It’s like we’ve been holding our breath for so long we’ve forgotten how to breathe.
While the National Day of Unplugging ended Saturday, you can still try it for yourself. Pick a day, whether it be your Sabbath or not, and try some of the principles Reboot advises. See if it doesn’t give you a clearer view of life and a chance to breathe again.
Hannah Kaase is a senior majoring in animal and dairy science. She can be contacted at [email protected].