Once a quarter, Amy and I go off the grid and totally disconnect. It's totally doable and it will change your life.
A student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison spent 90 days technology free. He went without a cell phone, Facebook, Twitter, or any social media of any kind. And you know what really improved? His driving!
When we think of digitally disconnecting and inviting presence into our lives, we are creating the conditions of integration within and between.
I'm not on social media; I don't watch TV. I'm really out of it.
I live my life very Amish-like. Other than video games, I don't think I have a reason for electronics. It's a life that I've always loved.
And I certainly like being on a plane, next to a stranger, having conversations that you'd never otherwise have. You're unplugged, your phone doesn't work, you're not online.
On vacation, I totally unplug. I don't bring a laptop with me.
Maybe we adults idealize our own red-rover days, the hot afternoons spent playing games that required no coaches, eating foods that involved no nutrition, getting dirty in whole new ways and rarely glancing in the direction of a screen of any kind.
When I am with my kids, I don't have my phone on me.
I was on my bike, cycling to Stanford, and it struck me that a week had gone by without my having a phone. And everything was just fine. Better than fine, actually. I felt more relaxed, carefree, happier.
I need to go someplace faraway that doesn't have telephones and doesn't have a record player and doesn't have movie theaters and people walking down the street in order to not do anything.
You sit or stand in the subway, and you look around - I do, because I don't have a phone so I'm not playing a game - and you see people.
I do not want to have a cell phone. I do not want it for cultural reasons. I do not want to be available all the time. I want to have time to think and to touch somebody, and have a meal across my kitchen table without a cell phone, being constantly on tweets.
It's really nice to have hobbies that don't involve any sort of technology.
Throw the computer away and don't look on the internet. That's the best thing to do.
