User:Outtatown/sandbox/Technology Shabbot

Technology Shabbat or Tech Shabbat are terms for a rest or cessation from the use of all technology with screens, ie smartphones, computers, tablets and television. The term was first coined in 2010 by filmmaker and internet pioneer Tiffany Shlain and husband UC Berkeley robotics professor Ken Goldberg. Shlain introduced the concept in a series of articles and films such as the Harvard Business Review after participating in The National Day of Unplugging, which began in 2008 by Reboot, a nonprofit think tank of Jewish professionals, based in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Technology Shabbat was inspired by the traditional Shabbat or Sabbath, a weekly day of rest in most popular religions.

History
Although not named as such, the concept of a Technology Shabbat evolved as early on as the creation of the internet, with more people participating since the advent of portable devices, according to Mark Glaser, editor of MediaShift on PBS.org. In the mid-1980s, Secretary of State George Shultz would take an hour each week in his office for quiet reflection with only a paper and pen. Shlain first disconnected in 2008, when her father, Leonard Shlain was diagnosed with brain cancer. During his infrequent lucid moments, she'd turn off her cell phone. Soon after, she and her husband Ken Goldberg, as members of Reboots, participated in the first annual National Day of Unplugging, and contributed a poem to commemorate the day, which was turned into a film by Shlain called "Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl'". Around that time, their family began the ritual of Technology Shabbats.

Rituals
For a Technology Shabbat, all screens are turned off for 24 hours, and many of those who partake chose Friday night until Saturday night. Suggested alternatives to technology include activities like reading books, taking walks, visiting new neighborhoods, engaging in outdoor activities and using pen and paper.

“The Internet is a vortex,” Portland writer Tammy Strobel told the Oregonian as the reason she and her husband turn off the computer on Sundays to observe Tech Sabbath. “I can get lost in it for hours. And time is something we can never get back.”

Among the rabbis who advocate unplugging for the Jewish Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset are New York City's Elliot J. Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue.

Filmography
The concept of Technology Shabbat has been featured in several films made by Shlain. These include "Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death, & Technology" in 2011, "Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl'" in 2011, "Technology Shabbats" in 2013, "A Case For Dreaming" in 2014, and "Making of a Mensch" in 2015.