Mental Detox Week= Turnoff Week

[misskitty]

April 21 - April 27 is Canadian Mental Detox Week.

Canadians are encouraged to abstain from their favorouite TV shows by shutting off the idiot box for seven days straight each year. This year, Mental Detox Week will include other gadgets like IPods, Blackberries, tell phone texting, video games and computers!

Turnoff Wek, as it is known in the USA was an idea started in 1994 to get people away from the tube and back to the basics of entertainment for one week.

This is about exploring what the world has to offer when the screens go dark!

This year, it wll be a challenge for many people as tv series are just reestarting and sports playoffs are at their peak.. Can you live without watching tv and playing with today's gadgets?

What do you do instead with all that time? Play board games with your family, go for walks, eat out, play sports, spend time with your friends, spring clean, go to museums, work on crafts, read a book at a coffee shop, whatever your heart desires.

So, this year I'd like to see if what everyone at the Fort manages to achieve. Let's allow posting on the Fort as the only computer-acceptable activity! And let everyone know what you did to Mentally Detox next week!!

[livin4reality]

I would LOVE to do this. However I think my family would kill me if I tried...

[buglover]

I think this is a good idea too although like livin, my family would probably lock me out of the house!! I have asked for one night a week for card games with neighbors though instead of watching the boob tube.

[misskitty]

I'm going to try to do the best I can. I know I can lose the tv and DVD, tape player. And as long as I can check my e-mails I should be ok with stepping away from the computer (me thinks).

I don't have a Wii, an Ipod, a cell-phone, or any game gadgets so I'm fairly good there. I'd like to go out for either a walk or work on a craft or something. Even go take some photos around the neighborhood. I don't think cameras count. Just uploading photos to your computer would count.
I'm going to try to avoid printed media like newspapers too.

I know that when I vacationed at Club Med, it was a total detox from all media, news, radio, tv, magazines, and electronics. You could eat, sleep, and play. Oh, and drink! That was it. And not knowing what was going on in the world for just one week or two was liberating!!

[speedbump]

I've been cutting back a lot lately. I'm going to have a "turn off month" in August when I move out west to California.

[just1paul]

I can ignore my cell phone, shut off the tv, not do anything on the computer, but I do use a computer at work and I don't think they would appreciate it if I stopped. I also don't knowwhat I would do without being able to check in at least once a day here.

[doxie]

I'm happy to turn off the TV. I have not touched my cell phone in months and I don't have an Ipod. I can't even work the damn Tivo (Hubby insists on having that!). I think that I would miss being online, getting email and visiting FORT though.

[brunette trixie]

My mom used to do something like this, she called it her "retreat" month. She would go to work and and the grocery store as usual, but all other activities would stop. She wouldn't answer the phone, watch tv, go online, etc when she was at home. She would read, sew, and do her other crafts. She said she always felt so much happier by the end of the month, and full of energy.

Unfortunately for her, she hasn't been able to do this this my sister and her little girl moved in with them. She's too busy being a good nana! I'm sure she misses it though.

[MRD]

I have actually cut down a LOT on my tv watching and have been reading more. When Mr. Rosie is home, the tv is always on. With him being gone, it hardly ever is on except when I'm too bored to read.

I don't think I could give up my computer for a week though. I use it for everything. I don't even own a phone book anymore as I look up all numbers and businesses online now.
And I'm trying to write something everyday because I've finally convinced myself that if I ever want to write a book, I have to discipline myself to write something every single day even if its crap.

I dont' own a cell phone, so that wouldn't be a problem and I lost the earbuds to my ipod, so haven't listened to that in a month. And I have managed to resist the regular phone in the house too. I've become so anti-phone lately. Is that an anti-social problem you think?

I think we should have give up your car week. I could see me doing that I think.

[hepcat]

We do this in the summer in my family except we call it "camping."