24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week

Media theorist Howard Rheingold says, “Pay attention to what you are paying attention to.” When we pay attention, it reflects our values and attitudes.

rest is actually one of the most effective technologies there

Even the term “soft skills” sells them short, contrasting them with “hard skills,” whose name suggests they are more difficult to master and that they are also more important and indispensable. But to be good at empathy

Annie Dillard is: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

Dr. Rich prefers a different term: “The issue I have with calling our compulsion to be online ‘addictive’ is it assumes you can abstain from it, like alcohol or nicotine.” But technology, like food, is something most of us can’t avoid, which is why Dr. Rich thinks of tech overuse in terms of binge eating. “You have to eat, so really it’s about self

Across the board, there’s a lack of balance: the speed at which the technology is taking over is so much greater than the speed at which we’re able to grasp its impact.

And the way to strengthen that filter is as simple as taking a moment, focusing your attention, and asking yourself: Is what I’m about to do a reflection of who I am? And who I want to be? It turns out taking a moment, a beat before acting impulsively, is a big part of building one’s character.

As a culture we are divided about this. Some of us seem to believe that technology is going to solve every problem; others believe that it will destroy civilization. I fall somewhere in the middle. Technology is wonderful! And also terrible. And both and neither, just like the people who use it.

Later, Christian sects like the Puritans would embrace the Sabbath too. The Sabbath fit well with their overall work ethic (since the command to rest one day was complemented by the need to work the other six). In her book The Sabbath World, culture critic Judith Shulevitz posits that the Sabbath would lead, in part, to the founding of the United S