Would you like to sleep better, get more enjoyment out of these gorgeous spring days, and have more time to spend with family, friends and that cute pet of yours? There is a way. It’s called Screen-Free Week, and it begins next weekend.
Like other great American inventions — Spring Break, Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl — this is a holiday of joyous celebration that improves as you put more energy into it.
From May 4 through 10, individuals, families and classrooms around the country will be consciously turning off televisions, computer screens, tablets and smartphones. Instead of focusing on a screen and interacting with “friends” digitally, we’ll be playing outside, reading books, fiddling with projects and spending time with actual friends face-to-face.
Sometimes, we might even be bored. Remember that? It’s the feeling of not knowing what to do with yourself, a state of mind notorious for producing imagination, creativity and delightfully unexpected adventures.
We’ll go into the week with this philosophy: TV and screens might be entertaining at times, but real life is truly rewarding.
Of course, there is a time and place for screens.
We’ll continue to use them as tools at work and school, or when they are the most logical way to communicate. For example, before the week begins, I’ll be utilizing the resources at www.screenfree.org. They have a fantastic list of resources. I appreciate their academic studies about the importance of withholding screens for children under age 2, and I am excited by their printable activity log to list what a person does instead of sitting down in front of a screen. The three categories: “By Myself,” “With Friends,” “With Family” are a great summary of how to invest the extra time we’ll have. You could certainly add a few more categories, from “With Pets” (when was the last time you took your dog on a leisurely after-work walk or opened a book and let your cat climb onto the spot you were trying to read?) to “In Bed and Sleeping Soundly by 9 p.m.”
Screen-Free Week began as National TV-Turnoff Week, but as more of our collective time has become spent in front of computer monitors and especially smartphones, the focus has changed.
Speaking for myself, turning off computer and phone screens is going to be a bit of a challenge. It will also make the event more rewarding. I’m ashamed to admit to myself, let alone to anyone else, how much I glance down at my smartphone when I’m in the presence of others, especially my family. I won’t get these moments back. My kids will be grown and out of the house within just a few years. I need to give them my full awareness and attentiveness now. Later, I won’t have that chance.
Facebook can be a nice way to stay in touch with folks, but in-person is even better. I can give up virtual relationships for a week in favor of true relationships.
Our family hasn’t ever had television service, and we are sparing with our use of videos and computer time. I can see evidence of the rewards of this choice, and I honestly can’t imagine how we could fit even an hour of television a night into our lives.
And yet, with the increasing pervasiveness of screens, there is ample opportunity to improve my life by reaching for the nearest screen — and turning it off.
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If your family is going to go screen-free for a week, or if you’ve integrated that philosophy into your lives already, please drop me a line. I’d love to feature your story in a future column.
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Brian Mittge lives south of Chehalis and, truth be told, on his cellphone. Even during screen-free week, he’ll occasionally check brianmittge@hotmail.com.
