in another thread, I referred to my “Tech Free Holiday,” where every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day, we ‘unplug’ and go super simple. There’s two rules:
No screens.
No frequencies above 107.1 MHz. (or whatever the higher frequency on your local FM broadcasting band is. . . )
This should eliminate cellphones, WiFi, Bluetooth, computers, television, DVDs, the Internet, etc. This also should invite more analog devices like coffee & tea, books, board & card games, pets on laps, maybe the radio (AM/FM), fires in a fireplace/candles . . . you get the idea.
Mrs. Tripler and I have been doing this for a couple of years now, and while it first took some discipline, it became a fantastic way to unplug, unwind, and reground ourselves.
I mentioned this to some coworkers the past few weeks, and the idea got some traction and interest. But y’all don’t come around my cubicle farm like you used to. Go on, gve it a whirl. . .
Tripler
Offline in twenty minutes–see you on the 26th!
Great idea if it works for you! But at least I have to be online on my phone to keep in contact with my friends, or else I would feel depressed on the holidays. And I’m listening to a lot of music (currently Muddy Waters’ “Hard Again” album) by streaming it from my laptop to my stereo system, so I also have to keep Bluetooth. But then, I’m living alone, and without cell phone and internet the holidays might get a bit lonely (don’t worry, I also visit and see family in my vicinity).
Yeah. Absent the Dope & WhatsApp I’d have no human contact whatsoever until I reconnect. I can be out in public in a crowd of strangers all day every day. In fact I am right now. The weather, Champagne, and food are fantastic. The company is nonexistent.
My only available non-strangers are virtual. Or said another way, they’re real but e-mediated. Kinda sux really.
I’m another one who lives alone: I think I could forego the internet, and having the radio for company and my piano* and/or an unassembled Lego set for fun would be fine, but these days all of my books are on my Kindle. I’d miss reading.
*It’s a hybrid — analog action and digital sound — but I don’t think it counts as “tech” for the purposes of this thread: there’s no screen, connectivity, etc.
If I would do a tech free day, it would be a day other than Christmas. Exchanging Christmas pleasantries with people all over the world is part of the fun.
I used to be shomer Shabbat, and was very good at it. I tested my sugar in the morning with my glucometer, and if I went to synagogue services, I drove-- just no way around that. I had a timer on the coffeemaker, Kleenex in the bathroom, crockpots, and otherwise ate cold food, I had a Shabbes lamp in the bathroom, and another by my bed. I made challah every Thursday night, and baked it Friday morning.
Computers, TV, phones, etc went off at candle-lighting Friday, and did not come back on until Havdallah on Saturday.
Kind of fell apart when I had a baby. He is a young adultg now, though, and I shoould start this again.
I spent a big chunk of Christmas Eve and Day with a book, the old-fashioned paper kind. But that was mostly because I was at my Mom’s house, and she doesn’t have much tech there.
The phone was still used for Christmas greetings with friends and family, though.
