Last night, Susan and I watched a television show on Nickelodeon called “Middle School Unplugged”, in which three young teens (seventh and eighth graders) had “technology” taken away from them for a full week. After the show Susan and I joked about doing it, and before long we had talked each other into doing it.<\/p>\n

Then we told Mason, who cried for at least ten minutes. <\/p>\n

Once it was agreed upon, the battle lines were drawn. When we say technology, we’re talking about entertainment devices: computers, iPods and iPhones, video game systems, televisions and radios. We’re still going to answer our phones (both home and cell), but our calls will be limited to five minutes in length, and we won’t be texting. Susan and I of course have to use computers at work during the day, but we’re going to try to limit it to work-use only (no checking home e-mail or surfing news sites).<\/p>\n

The hardest thing for me will be, well, everything. I am pretty much using or being exposed to electronic devices all day long. I check e-mail in the morning before hopping in the shower, and I fall asleep at night with the TV on. I know I’m on Twitter and Facebook too much; staying away from that for a few days is a real challenge. Many of my closest friends I only communicate with online. The thought of not checking in on forums, even my own, is already making me sad.<\/p>\n

Susan is online less than I am, although she likes her phone when she’s bored and she likes her laptop time late at night after the kids have gone to bed. Occasionally she likes marathon phone calls as well, but I’m sure she can wait on those until Saturday. I suspect she’ll have the easiest time of all of us adjusting.<\/p>\n

Mason is bombarded with electronic entertainment almost as much as I am. He takes either his Nintendo DS or his iPod Touch to daycare every day. At night he’s on the computer playing games or watching television.<\/p>\n

Morgan is too young to have many gadgets yet, but she does enjoy Nickelodeon just like her brother. The two of them are constantly watching SpongeBob, iCarly, and other shows. I don’t know if she is old enough to understand what we’re doing or why we’re doing it, but I’m sure she won’t like it.<\/p>\n

I wrote this post last night around 11:00pm. As of last night at midnight until Friday night at midnight, consider me “offline” — that means no Facebook, no Twitter, no e-mail … nothing. Through Saturday morning, if you need to contact us, call or stop by. <\/p>\n

I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say on Saturday … see you then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, Susan and I watched a television show on Nickelodeon called “Middle School Unplugged”, in which three young teens (seventh and eighth graders) had “technology” taken away from them for a full week. After the show Susan and I joked about doing it, and before long we had talked each other into doing it. Then we told Mason, who cried for at least ten minutes. Once it was agreed upon, the battle lines were drawn. When we say technology, we’re talking about entertainment devices: computers, iPods and iPhones, video game systems, televisions and radios. We’re still going to answer… (read more)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robohara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}