Check out the November 9, 2012 New York Times piece, Hurricane Sandy Reveals a Life Unplugged. The article by reporter, Aimee Lee Ball, describes the experiences of New York and New Jersey families who lost power and home access to their computers and digital devices during and after Superstorm Sandy.
Each family handled the situation differently, but many children and their parents found it was a challenge to engage in non-digital activities over a longer period of time.
The Best Quotes in the Article
- “One of greatest skills you can teach a child is: You don’t have to be hooked up to any machine to get through life,” said Mr. Powers, the author of “Hamlet’s BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age.”
- “The problem I see us bumping against is how attached we adults are to our own digital devices,” said Ms. Frederick. …“You have to check yourself if you’re going to lay down the law for your kids.”
I have read Hamlet’s Blackberry, I recommend. In this blog’s Best Reads: Learning and Digital Life Page. All of the books on this page are linked to websites where a reader can get more information.
Another article about unplugging, but not during a storm, appeared in the August 29, 2012 Christian Science Monitor. Unplugging: One Family Puts Away Technology describes one family’s experience on a vacation without digital connections.
N.B. During the 24 hours that superstorm Sandy disconnected my power, I spent a lot of time sitting next to windows reading back issues of the newspaper as well as an entire book — the old-fashioned kind with paper pages and print.
Media! Tech! Parenting! 