It’s hard to imagine life without a computer, isn’t it? We use computers for so many things these days, and most of us have our computers running 7 days a week, and nearly 365 days a year. What would happen if you turned off your computer for a whole day? Would you be able to survive for 24 hours without going through withdrawal? Let’s find out!
The first annual Shutdown Day is quickly approaching in about 8 days on May 3rd. On the official website for the project, they explain the purpose of it. The site reads, “The idea behind Shtudown Day is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate!” Not only does this give computer-a-holics the opportunity to rest their fingers and eyes, it also gives everybody the opportunity to save some energy if they actually shut-down their computers. They further explain:
Shutdown Day was founded with the sole purpose of spreading awareness about the pitfalls and dangers that lie in the excessive use of television, computers, and computing equipment like game boxes, cell phones, music players, online social websites, etc. Our main purpose is to get people to think about how their lives have changed with the increasing use of the computer, and whether or not any good things are being lost because of this.
Shutdown Day calls people to shut down their computers for one whole day of the year and involve themselves in some other activities: outdoors, nature, sports, fun stuff with friends and family – whatever, just to remind themselves that there still exists an enjoyable world outside one’s monitor screen.
What would happen if everybody participated? Maybe people would get out and get some exercise? And hey, I’m sure most everybody could afford to have their heart pumpin’ a little faster for a short while, don’t ya think? Maybe people would get together with their real friends in person instead of virtual friends, or maybe people would take their dog for an actual walk instead of putting them out in the backyard. The possibilities are endless, really.
If you plan to participate whether it’s on May 3rd or any other day in the future, what is it that you’d do if you actually turned off your computer, TV, cell-phone, and video-game system for a day?
Checkout Shutdown Day’s Website
I can…is not the end of the world…
Yeah, likewise, sans PC or the net is just fine. In fact, stress levels lower without UAC prompts
Other activities? What else could exist apart from computing?
Being a Saturday, I guess there’s no problem, during the week it would be nearly impossible due to college. Now, the problem would be remembering it, but I’ll tell the computer to remind me that day
Are doctors going to start prescribing time away from the computer for people with high levels of stress then?
I was kind of thinking the same thing. I guess there’s that thing people talk about… what’s it called? Oh, the outdoors! I should put that on my todo list so that I don’t forget to investigate what that “outdoors” thing is all about. Actually, why bother? I can get all the info from Wikipedia:
[en.wikipedia.org]
Yeah, reckon I could easily do the day without the computer. Assuming the weather is good I’ll head to the local airfield and jump out of a plane a couple of times
Really? I don’t know if I’d ever have the guts to go sky-diving, assuming that’s what you do?
Yup, started in October on the [en.wikipedia.org] with my University club. All solo, started freefalling in February and am now working towards my licence. Should you ever get the chance, go do it. Even a tandem would be awesome. As far as I know they aren’t as expensive at some US drop zones as they are over here.