Does Your Family Need a Tech Detox?
In this age of tablets, smartphones, iPods, e-readers and handheld video games, many of us (and our kids and partners too) have a near constant relationship with our devices. Is all of this technology really making our lives any better? Maybe. But now, perhaps more than ever before, it’s important to take time to unplug.
5 Ways to Stage A Tech Intervention at Home
1. Implement a mandatory weekly tech detox day. No TV, video games, computers, nada. From the time everyone walks through the door in the evening til’ when you all wake up the next morning. (Insert big kid and little kid tantrum here). But guaranteed your backyard will get more use in a month than it’s seen in a year.
2. Good old fashioned dinners. Remember when families had to sit around the dinner table and talk about stuff together? Bring those days back and make the dinner table a technology-free zone. No more scarfing down your meals in separate rooms, in front of separate devices.
3. Pull the plug on everything wireless. It’s super easy to change the password on your wireless router. Switch it up and then “forget” to let the rest of the family know for a day or two. They’ll be frustrated with their devices, but forced to get creative with their time until the issue miraculously fixes itself.
4. Bust out the big bribe. Example: Promise that the in-laws will stay at a hotel during their next visit, if your partner doesn’t bring the iPhone to bed for a week.
5. Book an “unplugged” vacation together. That means somewhere deep in the woods, out in nature (i.e. the boonies). Finding a cell signal at the bottom of a river canyon? Good luck.
