Digital Detox Week

I’m continuing my series of posts on what I’m now finding out is called the “Digital Detox,” which is being put together by Adbusters. They even have a page up for Digital Detox Week, which happens next week. They are urging people to turn off their electronic devices and engage the physical world.

This is on top of another post that I found at YPulse, on how college students are finding out that there’s a lot more stress and anxiety that comes with being always “plugged in.” This post makes mention of the fact that there’s little to no work-life balance for college students who have smartphones:

Today’s teens and college students have no concept of a work-life balance, and while young people have never been known to keep regular schedules, in a generation that is more sleep-deprived, stressed-out, and distracted than ever, it would be much healthier if young people were able to completely chill out during their leisure time, and save their e-mails for the school week or the daytime.

This is very interesting, as I think that myself and a few other friends that I have been corresponding with are feeling the same way. As part of my thought process to get myself down to 100 friends on Facebook, I am planning on participating in Digital Detox Week to see how it goes. It’s been a while since I’ve spent some time without my phone and really done something “analog.”

For example, one of the things that I absolutely love to do is read. Most of it is done online now, because I use Google Reader to page through a good number of online articles every day. On top of that, I usually peruse the articles over at Google news and then spend some time listening to audiobooks or reading them on my iPhone.

One of the things that I started this past week was actually sitting down and spending an hour or so reading a book. It was very relaxing, and I really felt like my mind was at rest the few nights that I read before going to bed, rather than checking emails and reading some articles online. It seems to me that Digital Detox Week is a very needed thing.

Are you planning on participating? Leave your comments below.