"The Unplugged Home"
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,088
I don't read Sunset Magazine frequently but my wife does and she brought this article to my attention. I think it has some excellent ideas worth considering. The power-down concepts here not only make good sense environmentally, but are good for the soul as well. I think the idea of stepping back, taking a life a little slower, more naturally, having more real-life interactions makes a lot of sense.
http://www.sunset.com/home/natural-home ... 000080483/
The first thing you notice about the San Francisco Mission District home of Laura Jo Wegman and Donovan Corliss is that there seems to be an awful lot of space. Wall space, counter space, floor space. It’s as if something is missing. Like TVs, video games, laptops, smartphones, and iPads. That’s because Wegman and Corliss have designated their home a technology-free zone. Their kitchen boasts a basic fridge, dishwasher, and stove—all with no LED interfaces. The phones are rotary dial, and even the clocks are analog, like the 1940s schoolhouse clock they restored with sons Lev, 4, and Ezra, 6, before displaying it in the kitchen.
“I’ve never been into screens and displays and flashing lights. I find them distracting from the things I really care about,” explains Wegman, design director of the organic home-textiles company Coyuchi.
“I think TV and Internet and phones become such a time suck that people feel that they don’t have time for anything else,” says Corliss, a developer for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “They don’t have time to do artwork with their kids or read books or have a conversation with one another.”
Corliss and Wegman always tended toward a low-tech lifestyle but became even more invested after Ezra’s birth. Since minimizing technology in their home, Corliss says that he feels restored. “I feel like I can be more present and that I’m more refreshed.” He says he even sleeps better.
Sure, maybe they get “some eye rolls” when people come over, but what they also get is time. Time to read The New Yorker in its entirety every week; time to bake bread from scratch; time to take their kids hiking and biking.
Wegman and Corliss are at the purist edge of a technology backlash that has been gaining momentum over the past few years. The idea? Unplug yourself and reconnect with an analog way of life. Oddly, the epicenter of this movement is the San Francisco Bay Area, also home to the tech-saturated Silicon Valley, where a smartphone is practically a requirement for residency.
But what “unpluggers” like Corliss and Wegman have decided is that technology, despite its promises to improve our lives and make it more efficient, often distracts us from more meaningful interactions. At the heart of the unplugging movement is a desire, à la Thoreau, to get back to a purer way of living: to rediscover hobbies, use your hands, get outdoors, have a conversation that isn’t mediated by bits and bytes.
Although technology frees us up, it does so almost to a fault. It actually takes us away from the physical act of doing anything, Wegman says. So, for example, she and Corliss grind their own flour for pancakes, then flip through a print edition of the newspaper over a hot breakfast.
The most visible manifestation of the unplugging movement has been the National Day of Unplugging, which started in 2009; and the related Technology Shabbat movement, which advocates a 24-hour digital hiatus every week. Filmmaker and Mill Valley, California, resident Tiffany Shlain started using the phrase “Technology Shabbat” in 2008; in 2010, she decided she wanted to practice it more deeply, after realizing she was inundated with technology. At the time, her father was dying and alert only one hour a day. “During that hour, I would turn off my phone and focus on him,” she recalls. “I began to think a lot about how to be present with the people we live with.”
Every Friday night, Shlain’s family now powers down all their cell phones, laptops, and TVs. Where Saturday mornings used to be fragmented and solitary—the kids watching TV, the parents consuming email with their coffee—it’s now their favorite day of the week, filled with gardening, hiking, and writing (longhand) in journals.
“It’s a deliciously long day,” Shlain says. “Technology speeds up time, and time is relative to your state of motion. When you are moving so quickly with all these devices, time passes really fast.”
Three years into her experiment, Shlain has motivated thousands of others nationwide to start their own Technology Shabbats, many interpreting the term with their own rules and boundaries. But the common refrain that she hears from everyone? “They feel they got their balance back.”
Many unpluggers, like Shlain, begin the technology power-down after having kids, concerned about the impact of ubiquitous technology on developing minds. This was also true for the Corliss/Wegman family. They wanted their kids to have a tactile and immersive childhood. Instead of video games, the family plays board or card games. Ezra and Lev enjoy classic toys like marble runs and wooden trains. In the kitchen, they experiment with old-fashioned cooking gadgets like flour grinders, a hand-crank ice cream maker, and a handpress juicer. Upstairs are two “art studios”—one for the kids, one for Wegman—crammed with imagination-inspiring supplies, the fruits of which decorate every wall of their house.
“I don’t think of it so much as subtracting as adding,” Corliss explains. It’s as if eliminating the physical clutter of cords and monitors has freed up more empty room in their minds for creativity.
Many of the pleasures of their low-tech life are simple ones that are frequently lost in the hustle of digital living. The daily subscription to a print newspaper, for example. And when friends come over for dinner, conversations tend to linger, uninterrupted by cell phones, while the kids build forts, put on puppet shows, or kick a ball around outside. “We have dinner without the TV and the Internet, and this blinking and that going off. I can complete a whole phrase and idea,” Wegman says.
Still, both parents insist that they aren’t puritans. Both own laptops and iPhones, lightly used for things like Google Maps or booking flights online (at a minimum in front of the kids, though, because they like to keep the home space pure). They even have a TV stashed on the floor of their closet, which gets pulled out of hiding every two years. “I’m an Olympics junkie,” Wegman confesses. But do they miss technology in their home? Not at all.
Okay, maybe a little: “Heating up milk for the children, in a pot at 3 in the morning?” Corliss recalls. “Oh my goodness. I wished I had a microwave.”
LOOKING TO UNPLUG?
Here’s what others are doing––and what you can try––from easy to hard-core.
National Day of Unplugging. Who’s behind it: Reboot, a Jewish arts organization based in New York. What it is: Unplug all your devices from sunset to sunset on March 1–2, 2013. Insight: In its fourth year, the National Day of Unplugging has participants from around the world turning off their TVs, phones, and computers for 24 hours. “This is the zeitgeist of the moment,” says NDU spokeswoman Tanya Schevitz. Reboot also wrote the Sabbath Manifesto’s 10 principles. nationaldayofunplugging.com
Walden Zones. Who’s behind it: William Powers, author of Hamlet’s BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age (Harper Perennial, 2011; $15). What it is: Designate space in your house as a tech-free zone. Put a basket at the door for cell phones. Insight: “In the beginning, we had total withdrawal, which made us realize how addicted we were,” recalls Powers. “After a few months, we began to realize all these incredible benefits. It’s like adding a room to your house—a space where you can live differently.” williampowers.com
The Digital Detox. Who’s behind it: S.F. Bay Area residents Levi Felix and Brooke Dean. What it is: Retreats in remote Northern California locales without any devices. Insight: Former tech and social entrepreneur Felix launched the Digital Detox after he ended up in the hospital due to a stress-related condition. “When I got out, I started reevaluating everything,” he says. At his monthly Detox, participants ditch all gadgets for long weekends of activities like cooking and hiking. He also holds device-free gatherings in San Francisco. thedigitaldetox.org
Technology Shabbats. Who’s behind it: Tiffany Shlain. What it is: Powering down, usually from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. Insight: “It’s definitely harder to make plans, and we have to print out our schedules the day before,” Shlain says, laughing. “Instead of sending 10 texts to coordinate, we just show up. If we’re late, there will be no cell phone call. It’s the way everyone used to do things.” tiffanyshlain.com
Unplug your house. Who’s tried it: The Wegman/Corliss family. What it is: Keep technology at a minimum in your home. Insight: People have visited the house, Wegman says, and talked about how “they should” do this. But she doesn’t know anyone else who has tried it yet.
Give up your smartphone. Who’s tried it: Northern Californian Andrew Tyree. What it is: Give up your app-filled smartphone for something simpler. Insight: As a restaurant worker, Tyree was irked by people’s preoccupation of texting and tweeting during meals. He realized he was no better and switched from his smartphone to an app-less flip phone. He finds that he’s more engaged in the moment and now knows his city, San Francisco, better since he no longer has Google Maps.
http://www.sunset.com/home/natural-home ... 000080483/
The first thing you notice about the San Francisco Mission District home of Laura Jo Wegman and Donovan Corliss is that there seems to be an awful lot of space. Wall space, counter space, floor space. It’s as if something is missing. Like TVs, video games, laptops, smartphones, and iPads. That’s because Wegman and Corliss have designated their home a technology-free zone. Their kitchen boasts a basic fridge, dishwasher, and stove—all with no LED interfaces. The phones are rotary dial, and even the clocks are analog, like the 1940s schoolhouse clock they restored with sons Lev, 4, and Ezra, 6, before displaying it in the kitchen.
“I’ve never been into screens and displays and flashing lights. I find them distracting from the things I really care about,” explains Wegman, design director of the organic home-textiles company Coyuchi.
“I think TV and Internet and phones become such a time suck that people feel that they don’t have time for anything else,” says Corliss, a developer for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “They don’t have time to do artwork with their kids or read books or have a conversation with one another.”
Corliss and Wegman always tended toward a low-tech lifestyle but became even more invested after Ezra’s birth. Since minimizing technology in their home, Corliss says that he feels restored. “I feel like I can be more present and that I’m more refreshed.” He says he even sleeps better.
Sure, maybe they get “some eye rolls” when people come over, but what they also get is time. Time to read The New Yorker in its entirety every week; time to bake bread from scratch; time to take their kids hiking and biking.
Wegman and Corliss are at the purist edge of a technology backlash that has been gaining momentum over the past few years. The idea? Unplug yourself and reconnect with an analog way of life. Oddly, the epicenter of this movement is the San Francisco Bay Area, also home to the tech-saturated Silicon Valley, where a smartphone is practically a requirement for residency.
But what “unpluggers” like Corliss and Wegman have decided is that technology, despite its promises to improve our lives and make it more efficient, often distracts us from more meaningful interactions. At the heart of the unplugging movement is a desire, à la Thoreau, to get back to a purer way of living: to rediscover hobbies, use your hands, get outdoors, have a conversation that isn’t mediated by bits and bytes.
Although technology frees us up, it does so almost to a fault. It actually takes us away from the physical act of doing anything, Wegman says. So, for example, she and Corliss grind their own flour for pancakes, then flip through a print edition of the newspaper over a hot breakfast.
The most visible manifestation of the unplugging movement has been the National Day of Unplugging, which started in 2009; and the related Technology Shabbat movement, which advocates a 24-hour digital hiatus every week. Filmmaker and Mill Valley, California, resident Tiffany Shlain started using the phrase “Technology Shabbat” in 2008; in 2010, she decided she wanted to practice it more deeply, after realizing she was inundated with technology. At the time, her father was dying and alert only one hour a day. “During that hour, I would turn off my phone and focus on him,” she recalls. “I began to think a lot about how to be present with the people we live with.”
Every Friday night, Shlain’s family now powers down all their cell phones, laptops, and TVs. Where Saturday mornings used to be fragmented and solitary—the kids watching TV, the parents consuming email with their coffee—it’s now their favorite day of the week, filled with gardening, hiking, and writing (longhand) in journals.
“It’s a deliciously long day,” Shlain says. “Technology speeds up time, and time is relative to your state of motion. When you are moving so quickly with all these devices, time passes really fast.”
Three years into her experiment, Shlain has motivated thousands of others nationwide to start their own Technology Shabbats, many interpreting the term with their own rules and boundaries. But the common refrain that she hears from everyone? “They feel they got their balance back.”
Many unpluggers, like Shlain, begin the technology power-down after having kids, concerned about the impact of ubiquitous technology on developing minds. This was also true for the Corliss/Wegman family. They wanted their kids to have a tactile and immersive childhood. Instead of video games, the family plays board or card games. Ezra and Lev enjoy classic toys like marble runs and wooden trains. In the kitchen, they experiment with old-fashioned cooking gadgets like flour grinders, a hand-crank ice cream maker, and a handpress juicer. Upstairs are two “art studios”—one for the kids, one for Wegman—crammed with imagination-inspiring supplies, the fruits of which decorate every wall of their house.
“I don’t think of it so much as subtracting as adding,” Corliss explains. It’s as if eliminating the physical clutter of cords and monitors has freed up more empty room in their minds for creativity.
Many of the pleasures of their low-tech life are simple ones that are frequently lost in the hustle of digital living. The daily subscription to a print newspaper, for example. And when friends come over for dinner, conversations tend to linger, uninterrupted by cell phones, while the kids build forts, put on puppet shows, or kick a ball around outside. “We have dinner without the TV and the Internet, and this blinking and that going off. I can complete a whole phrase and idea,” Wegman says.
Still, both parents insist that they aren’t puritans. Both own laptops and iPhones, lightly used for things like Google Maps or booking flights online (at a minimum in front of the kids, though, because they like to keep the home space pure). They even have a TV stashed on the floor of their closet, which gets pulled out of hiding every two years. “I’m an Olympics junkie,” Wegman confesses. But do they miss technology in their home? Not at all.
Okay, maybe a little: “Heating up milk for the children, in a pot at 3 in the morning?” Corliss recalls. “Oh my goodness. I wished I had a microwave.”
LOOKING TO UNPLUG?
Here’s what others are doing––and what you can try––from easy to hard-core.
National Day of Unplugging. Who’s behind it: Reboot, a Jewish arts organization based in New York. What it is: Unplug all your devices from sunset to sunset on March 1–2, 2013. Insight: In its fourth year, the National Day of Unplugging has participants from around the world turning off their TVs, phones, and computers for 24 hours. “This is the zeitgeist of the moment,” says NDU spokeswoman Tanya Schevitz. Reboot also wrote the Sabbath Manifesto’s 10 principles. nationaldayofunplugging.com
Walden Zones. Who’s behind it: William Powers, author of Hamlet’s BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age (Harper Perennial, 2011; $15). What it is: Designate space in your house as a tech-free zone. Put a basket at the door for cell phones. Insight: “In the beginning, we had total withdrawal, which made us realize how addicted we were,” recalls Powers. “After a few months, we began to realize all these incredible benefits. It’s like adding a room to your house—a space where you can live differently.” williampowers.com
The Digital Detox. Who’s behind it: S.F. Bay Area residents Levi Felix and Brooke Dean. What it is: Retreats in remote Northern California locales without any devices. Insight: Former tech and social entrepreneur Felix launched the Digital Detox after he ended up in the hospital due to a stress-related condition. “When I got out, I started reevaluating everything,” he says. At his monthly Detox, participants ditch all gadgets for long weekends of activities like cooking and hiking. He also holds device-free gatherings in San Francisco. thedigitaldetox.org
Technology Shabbats. Who’s behind it: Tiffany Shlain. What it is: Powering down, usually from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. Insight: “It’s definitely harder to make plans, and we have to print out our schedules the day before,” Shlain says, laughing. “Instead of sending 10 texts to coordinate, we just show up. If we’re late, there will be no cell phone call. It’s the way everyone used to do things.” tiffanyshlain.com
Unplug your house. Who’s tried it: The Wegman/Corliss family. What it is: Keep technology at a minimum in your home. Insight: People have visited the house, Wegman says, and talked about how “they should” do this. But she doesn’t know anyone else who has tried it yet.
Give up your smartphone. Who’s tried it: Northern Californian Andrew Tyree. What it is: Give up your app-filled smartphone for something simpler. Insight: As a restaurant worker, Tyree was irked by people’s preoccupation of texting and tweeting during meals. He realized he was no better and switched from his smartphone to an app-less flip phone. He finds that he’s more engaged in the moment and now knows his city, San Francisco, better since he no longer has Google Maps.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
Democracy Dies in Darkness- Washington PostPost edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
I do have a CHEAP laptop Cost $299 4 years ago!
I have a TV that is deeper than it is wide! LOL Worth zero!
I do have one Iphone 4s for my business.
Other than that, I dont spend a dime on anything else regarding technology! I also try my best to read books, denounce Hollywood and promote the ideals of socializing amongst each other. We are losing our emotions and feelings and mainly we grow apart or forget how to interract with loved ones. It is vital that we ask our loved ones personally how they are really doing. It is important to really remember how to listen and not get distracted. We need to involve ourselves in others feelings and actually have a constructive conversation with them.
I also garden alot and Im in touch with nature. It is important to see the results of our work and see the beauty of nature. Its a blessing to see the fruit that is yielded in the garden. How it comes to life and how it provides nutrients to those who consume it. Its a beautiful thing.
We cannot forget the beauty that is all around us......and too much of anything is NO GOOD! Too much technology is NO GOOD!
Moderation is the biggest value we can promote with all we do!
A man that stands for nothing....will fall for anything!
All people need to do more on every level!
I don't have an internet connection or laptop at home (obviously have the iphone though). I don't pay for cable either so I just get the channels from an antenna. Don't miss cable one bit. I did it because I was getting lazy watching TV too much on the weekends or not using my time for better things like practicing guitar or reading or getting out of the house.
I live very close to my work and usually work at least 60 hours a week so I just use the internet at work to buy stuff or post on this board.
When my grammar school aged nephews off and on spent days at a time with me we sat around the table drawing, painting, writing poetry or making up stories or went for long walks. When it got close to bedtime for them they would lie on the floor while I played played my guitar or spun a few mellow records until they fell asleep and then I'd carry them off to bed. We spent a lot of time unplugged and were all the better for it. I really enjoy that kind of down time either at home or totally unplugged in the woods or out in the still desert. I wish I could turn people on to those ideas without sounding preachy. It really is a great feeling to unplug!
Work aside, I'm "connected" at home in various ways but not constantly.
As far as other ways go, a friend of mine was amazed I don't have game apps on my phone - why would I? It's enough just using it for basic contact and communication, and I don't espouse the available-to-all-at-anytime way of life (and honestly, having a rotary vs I-phone wouldn't change that).
And now that I think about it...being unplugged isn't so much literally doing so, but mentally.
Contemplating...thinking...processing what's around us.
Life has become (or, I guess, WE have made life) so hectic and instantaneous - little or no forethought goes into much of what's spewed in social media - on these boards at times as well...even in person, where technology doesn't even come into play.
Sometimes it charges my battery to do nothing but just chill and let my mind go.
(OK, I may smoke a fattie while doing so, but still
dishwasher, eh? :think:
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
They'll spend 20 more seconds dialing a phone, but they draw the line at hand washing dishes.
**************************
Every family has its quirks. I think this family will miss having technology as a valuable bargaining tool when they're kids become teenagers.
Ever watch 'No Impact Man'? I thought about the No Impact family during Hurricane Sandy. I bet they were just fine.
do they line dry their clothes???
no microwave is no big woop.... i dont have a microwave... for various reasons.. the biggest one being i dont need one.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
I'm sure they did. I don't remember for sure, but I do remember the family stomping on their dirty clothes in the bathtub like a wine maker would grapes. The wife of the film maker is a writer for Newsweek, or some similar publication. She had to go a year looking professional while off the grid in NYC. If she can do it, anyone can. But, I'm still not going to go through that much effort.
I've just gone nearly two years being disconnected due to my life's circumstances. It sucked. I don't need to be connected 24/7, but technology has its advantages.
technology def has its advantages... like all that knowledge at my fingertips.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ead_module
From Brian's post; "But what “unpluggers” like Corliss and Wegman have decided is that technology, despite its promises to improve our lives and make it more efficient, often distracts us from more meaningful interactions. At the heart of the unplugging movement is a desire, à la Thoreau, to get back to a purer way of living: to rediscover hobbies, use your hands, get outdoors, have a conversation that isn’t mediated by bits and bytes."
I think this post is about humanism in need of dire appreciation.
I wonder how many notice anything of nature in their everyday life anymore.
It's our greatest gift we were given.
We are nature.
I chose not to raise my kids with plugged-in TV (though we could rent the occasional video). They often remarked about how un-cool this was. But generally, they were too busy being outdoor kids to really find much time complaining. Now, they've actually thanked me. Guess what I'm saying, sometimes, even this parent got a thing or two right so I want to make the effort to impart that onto the ones here still immersed in parenting. Don't cave in on all-things-techno. And, as a society member, I really just want to thank you for making every effort to parent. Our youth need that, now I believe, more than ever. You won't get it all right but that's okay. It gives your adult kids great sporting ammunition down the road!