At some point after the National Day of Unplugging begins at sundown Friday, March 23, Dan Fost figures he will reflexively reach for his phone. It’s a “siren call” he vows to resist.
A Marin-based journalist and former technology writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, Fost normally stays as plugged in as possible. But his iPhone, iPod and every other “i” will remain off for 24 hours starting at sundown Friday — a period that, not coincidentally, coincides with Shabbat.
The third annual National Day of Unplugging is a project of Reboot, a Jewish cultural nonprofit that seeks to reinvigorate Jewish life. The point is to disconnect from the ubiquitous electronic devices that run people’s lives — a digital detox, as promoters call it — and relearn the lost art of socializing with others face to face.
“It’s a great, wired world we live in,” says Fost, who will be participating in his second NDU. “You plug in so much and connect with so many people, but it definitely does get to be too much. Unplugging really helps you live in the present. You pay a little more attention to things around you.”
Several local institutions are taking part in the NDU. The Koret Foundation is a sponsor of the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s “Unplug” event, scheduled March 22. Participants were to receive cute little sleeping bags for their phones and learn to make place mats out of scrap materials, led by the founders of the hip S.F. retailer Curiosity Shoppe.
“Being the Contemporary Jewish Museum, we are always interested in identity and what it is to be a contemporary Jew in society,” said Gravity Goldberg, the museum’s public program manager. “This is a way of reinventing and reinvigorating Jewish ideas, so it’s a natural fit for us.”
Other public Bay Area events include an “Unplug and Eat Together” Shabbat dinner at the JCC of San Francisco on March 23, featuring Middle East band Musaique and readings by local writers about transformative experiences related to food. Fost will be one of the participating writers. He says he will not be reading from an iPad.
Bay Area synagogues also will participate in the NDU. For Friday night services at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, Rabbi Janet Marder will lead a discussion on how to create peaceful unplugged space on Shabbat. The next day, guest teacher Rabbi Yoel Glick will lead a learning and meditation session called “Entering into the Consciousness of Shabbat.”
New York–based Reboot executive director Yoav Schlesinger says more than 400 partners across the country will take part in this national “don’t plug it in” day, among them synagogues, Hillels and JCCs.
He hopes to reach more than 800,000 people and persuade them to hit the “off” switch, even though Reboot proudly keeps it on most of the time.
“We embrace technology,” Schlesinger says of Reboot. “We recognize all the benefits of being plugged in. At the same time, the constant reactive nature of being plugged in means it’s harder to connect with our families, to have conversations.”
Schlesinger believes the Bay Area could be a major hub for the national unplug movement, ironically because of its proximity to what he calls the “crushing technological tsunami” of Silicon Valley.
Its natural beauty helps as well, he adds. “The ability to get outdoors makes it so appealing: Go to Mount Tamalpais. Ride a bike.”
Though the National Day of Unplugging is intended for everyone, Schlesinger understands how the message may have special resonance for Jews.
“Shabbat is not new,” he notes. “ We’re trying to take a notion that has existed for a very long time and apply it to a modern sensibility. That’s the core principle.”
And though Fost says he and his family are not very observant, he is looking forward to at least one weekend of Sabbath rest, old school–style.
“It’s amazing to me how fast we’ve become completely dependent on gadgets and technology,” Fost says. “The old rabbis were onto something, that idea of a Sabbath, of putting aside your work and devoting time to family: That’s what’s really nice about [the NDU], having the opportunity of being mindful of that again.”
National Day of Unplugging, www.sabbathmanifesto.org