March 3rd is Global Day of Unplugging, an annual awareness campaign established in 2009 to celebrate human connection over digital engagement. We invited Claudia Erickson, co founder of the nonprofit Unplug Collaborative, home and host of Global Day of Unplugging, to talk about all the ways that you can join and why this is an incredible opportunity to get to know the benefits of taking a break from technology.

Prefer the audio version? Listen to our interview on our Podcast.

Iliana: We are celebrating Global Day of Unplugging 14th birthday this year. Can you tell us a little bit more about the origins of the campaign and what exactly are we celebrating?

Claudia: Sure. I think this is actually the first year where we are not calling it the National Day of Unplugging, but rather the Global Day of Unplugging. So that's the big thing. We just made the official name transition, which is pretty exciting. For those not familiar. Essentially, National Day of Unplugging is very similar to Earth Day, only it's for your tech. And every year, the first weekend in March, as you mentioned, people participate all over the globe. We all collectively unplugged together and we do activities that are meaningful and fun. And this all began with Reboot, which for those not familiar, this is a Jewish arts and culture nonprofit here in the US. And they had started the campaign back in 2009. And just for context here, that's a few years before smartphones even became super popular. So they kind of had a lot of forethought about the dangers coming from too much tech time. And so it began as a small group of people that gathered for tech free Shabbat dinners and it grew exponentially after that and turned into what it is today, which is thousands of worldwide community partners organizing live unplugged events. So that's kind of how it started. But the campaign was growing and growing and Reboot was really looking for someone to take the program they had started and expand beyond its roots as an outgrowth of the Jewish Shabbat. So timing is everything. And Kim Cavallo, she's our executive director and the other co founder of the nonprofit, she reached out to me to see if I would want to join forces with her to take over the coordination of this really awesome program that had already been going on. And this was at the time, was in 2020. I thought it was a great idea and we have kept a lot of things the same, the tradition of celebrating the first weekend in March and from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday that's all the same, but we have people celebrating days or weeks leading up to it.

Iliana: Who participates in GDU?

Claudia: People from all walks of life are participating. Religious, not religious, essentially anybody who wants to spread awareness about how to maintain healthy life tech balance. I know most people say tech life balance, I always like to say life tech balance because I feel like your life should come first. Anyway, to date we've had more than 135,000 people participating in what was National Day Of Unplugging programs. That's over 1000 schools, religious institutions and businesses worldwide. So ultimately, what really sets our nonprofit apart is that we primarily focus on finding leaders who are going to spread digital wellness efforts throughout their community. Now, the transformation from national the Global Day of Unplugging came about this year because we knew we had a lot of participants outside of the US. And we wanted a name that represented that global connection and that allowed for more expansion in that regard. So now we have amazing folks like yourself and others representing countries like Germany, France, Switzerland, Indonesia, Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, possibly others.

Iliana: How would you say attitudes towards Unplugging have changed over the last couple of years? Especially with the Pandemic, everyone was stuck at home. Technology assumed a very different role in our lives.

Claudia: I would say it's changed a ton. When I started down this path years ago, my message was often met with animosity and hesitation, and that's putting it nicely. No one really wanted to hear that much about Unplugging. People really know it's important and know this is an issue to be concerned about. They worry about it, but they also don't want to do anything that would separate them from their phones. So it was a challenge. But several things have changed recent years, particularly over the past couple of years, which has contributed to what I feel like is a digital wellness awakening of sorts. Whistleblowers from the tech industry like Tristan Harris and Francis Haugen, they made a big impact, along with movies like The Social Dilemma. Really, those things moved the needle on this topic. I would also strangely credit the Pandemic. It was good for this, along with social isolation and unlimited amounts of tech time, gave people a different perspective. I like to make this akin to living in a fudge shop. I may love fudge, but when I live in the shop and it's all around me and I've eaten a lot, suddenly I start to feel sick and I realize I need a salad and a healthier diet. So more and more people are getting this, and they've really gotten behind our campaign. So much so that in the last couple of years, we even had celebrities getting on board with our message, like Kristen Bell and Tiffany Thiesen, Hillary Swank and Mayim Bialik. It's just really fun to see them supporting us and holding up the signs “We unplug to…”, and then you fill in the blank. They hold up these signs. And that's the signature theme since the program began 14 years ago. So we've really felt a lot of support that way. And that's significantly different than when this all started becoming an issue that people talked about a few years ago.

Iliana: What are some of the stories that you've heard that have been particularly moving for you?

Claudia: Oh, my gosh. So many great stories. The Pandemic made us get really creative. We had a little free library scavenger hunt one year that comes up to mind. Those are the little book sharing boxes you see in some communities. We decided to make networks of these little libraries and communities and then post a different clue on each box. People could then go find them all, and it was the perfect activity to do during the pandemic when nobody was meeting in person and we had to come up with socially distanced ideas for connecting. So that was a real challenge. But what we hoped would be just a few networked libraries ended up being over 40 different cities with routes here in the US. And abroad. And best of all, people that put on the hunt really felt good about helping people get out of the house in a creative way, and the attendees loved it, and you could just feel the community coming together through those activities. That was one. We also had people participate in this what was called a “Crochet for a cause” event. That was a cool young crochet artist named London Kay who worked with us, and she would show people how to crochet a different letter. And when you strung all these letters up, they would spell out the word “Welcome Home”. And this was then made into a banner that could be hung over a door and was sent to people transitioning out of homelessness. And people enjoyed feeling like they could be part of something that was giving back and they got to do an activity that kept their hands and minds busy. So that was a good one. Then we also had the “Wishing tree” activity. That was another kind of really meaningful thing that happened during the pandemic. There was a woman who was battling breast cancer alone and she couldn't have any visitors during COVID And if you know anything about cancer, rates of survival can be impacted by if you're surrounded by support. So we wanted to make sure she did not feel alone. So a tree was put up outside her home and a little station set up where people could walk by and fill up cards with pictures and words of support and then hang them on the tree. And so she was able to see that every day and feel the love and support of her community.It gave her a great feeling. It gave the neighbors a feeling of some little thing they could do when there really wasn't much that they could otherwise feel like they were doing.

Iliana: I'm sure that there's also many people who after they feel the effects of one day unplugged, they don't want to give it up again, right?

Claudia: Oh, absolutely. That's the thing. They would kind of get that what we call “the bug to unplug”. And that's what we hope for, is that by doing these kind of fun, meaningful, but fun, light hearted opportunities for unplugging, that they will want to do more and more of it. Which seems to be kind of a backdoor way of reaching people when maybe the education first might sometimes be challenging. If they at least feel a positive experience doing something like this, then they're more open to learning about it and doing more things unplugged.

Iliana: How do you think your involvement with this campaign has impacted your view of where we are at as a society and in the way that we're engaging with technology?

Claudia: I feel more hopeful. I'll just say that I am appreciating that people seem to be having this awakening and understanding of what they need to do to have a better balance in their life with their technology. So I think that spreads out to companies wanting to get behind it as well. And we see that with people coming on board. We have Bausch and Lomb with their biotrue product that's wanting to come on board and be our premier sponsor because they know this is an important time to talk to people about dry eye syndrome, which would be the connection they have. We're seeing more and more groups that are really seeing the value in spreading the word about digital wellness and the importance thereof. And that means that we can get this message out farther to more people.

Iliana: So what are some of the things that people can do during the day, during Global Day of Unplugging?

Claudia: So we encourage people to look at our website. Obviously you can check out ideas, but a lot of people have plenty of ideas of their own as well. But whatever way that you want to see fit, you can participate for whatever amount of time that you'd like. People always hear it's a 24 hours unplugging event and they think they have to do it for the entire time, but they don't. Whether it's 1 hour you unplug or 24, all are welcome. It's more about just kind of being mindful about your tech use during that time and during that day sometime. So there's that. And then in terms of activities, again, we like to have things that keep your hands and your minds busy. That's ideal. In doing something in a group, we've had people participate in community service projects and we've got this unplug it's on for socks if you're interested this year, where you basically get to spend your time offline and get credit for the time and then that translates into socks being donated to the homeless. So that's kind of a nice thing. You can coordinate a nature hike or an unplugged dining event and that's something that could be done at a local restaurant or out in your community, like a street party or a potluck. Those are a lot of fun and very community building. I'm always amazed at how many neighbors don't know each other. And then we have these scavenger hunts that you can do and we have lots of different themed clues on our website. Super great for families. And that's one thing that my community is going to do, in fact. So those are really nice. And for schools we have had people do kindness rocks and those are when you paint on a rock a positive message or picture and you pass it on to someone and it's someone who might maybe they need a pickup pick me up message. Sometimes they make a kindness rock garden and it could be a commemorative thing. We're also really hoping that we can get some schools to be involved in a pen pal exchange program. This is old school fun and this can be other students in a different city connecting with each other in a different country. Or it could be done in your own community between kids and say, elderly people. And we have some templates and sample questions to make it really simple to implement this.

You might have kids asking an older person what was it like when you used to date or how did you used to get to school or when did you learn to drive? And things of that nature. And then the elderly asking kids how do you communicate with your friends now? And all of those types of exchanges are really neat. So we've got ideas like that on our website. You can decorate our knapsacks if you're in the US. And we have little cards that come with this and the child might fill it out and indicate dear mom or dad, here are some fun things that I'd like to do together with you when we're unplugged. So it's just kind of a nice activity to do in celebration of the day. So we've got a lot of different fun resources on our website that you can check out and see what might work for your group or organization or your family.

Iliana: Now, what happens after the day? What can people do for the other 364 days of the year?

Claudia: Well, we really hope that Global Day of Unplugging is just a springboard to mobilize people to do things at other times of the year. And that's really our hope for this whole thing, is to get people unplugging many, many more times. And we have communities that are doing this already. We're always kind of looking for people that are those leaders that want to take this farther, take the global dividend plugging farther to other businesses, other activities, other events, and bring their community together. So if we kind of look at where we're at now, we've had about 40 communities, I would say, that have started breaking ground on an unplugged village in their community. It's not something that happens overnight, but if you keep at it, your village grows and people start to get excited about the activities and being involved.

Iliana: Why do you think the world needs Global Day of Unplugging more than ever today?

Claudia: We need this more than ever because of the future generations. So that is my big concern is about what kids are not learning, what people are missing out on when they're spending x number of hours every single day on their technology. We're seeing it more and more with families, with young children, with parents that are not as attentive, and they don't even know what they're missing out on. That's what scares me is that we don't even know. We have a generation that doesn't know because they've lived most of their life plugged in. So they may not have grown up helping raise siblings because they were too busy or they didn't babysit. And they're missing that whole skill set to raise the next generation and those kids are being raised on technology. So we really need a wake up call because the effects that we're going to be seeing down the road are huge. And so I think this is very important. I don't think it's too late. We just really have to get on it and it's important to take care of it now.

Iliana: Are there some parting words that you would like to leave with us?

Claudia:  I would say just to come together, whether that's with one person or your family or your neighborhood and find something that you know that you like to do that causes you fun and gives you some enjoyment and preferably keeps your hands busy. Right. That could be anything from making some sort of craft at home or playing a game night. It might be going out to what we call dive bars here with your friends and playing darts. One of my favorite activities actually. It could be that you're going to look on our website and download one of our scavenger hunts and implement that in your neighborhood. I think just finding something that you really enjoy that is fun and that will maybe bring a little laughter and lightheartedness and you'll have a good experience. Give it a shot, you might want to do more of it.

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