Bits Blog readers responded to the challenge with some fairly entertaining self-produced videos. There are some sad truths in there—when one man stopped taking text messages and asked friends to call if anything was important, they instead started texting his wife and asking her to relay the message.
But stepping away from the immediate withdrawal, many saw a benefit to getting new perspective on how much information they take in every day. Going further, the Bits post recommends anyone feeling like they're similarly overwhelmed to log their data input like a diet. Write down when you check Twitter, how often you're on email, responding to texts—just like logging food and calories in a diet journal.
So you've probably seen the Times article about vacation, your brain and computers. I'm thinking this diet approach makes more sense than the cold turkey route. I also remember blogging On Vacation and Looking for Wi-Fi earlier this year.
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17 August
Yesterday must have been the day for stories like this. The PBS NewHour followed with Author Disconnects From Communication Devices to Reconnect With Life. In this interview, Bill Powers, author of Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Agea weekly Internet Sabbath, unplugging the modem late Friday through Monday morning." I like that Powers "recognizes that technologies might evolve to help us more, rather than making us busier."