This is the 10th annual national day of unplugging organized by Reboot, a progressive organization in the Jewish community that seeks to make rituals and traditions meaningful to today’s world. As I understand it this started around the idea of taking an ‘internet sabbath’ - shabbat without screens. I think it’s an excellent effort, and thought others might want to know about it.
Here’s a link to their announcement with details on how to host events and get involved.
Douglas Rushkoff’s latest Team Human podcast had an interesting bit where he compared Judaism as a construct of dealing with the onslaught of the written word on society with what we are experiencing now in the digital era. (https://teamhuman.fm/ - Ep. 116 with Mark Pesce, starting at 13’50") As part of that, the sabbath was the enforced pause – recognizing the value of space that’s about being rather than doing.