Unplugging does not mean retreating from the world.
Unplugging is not a protest against technology.
Unplugging is not a sign of Luddite status.
In fact, I'd argue the contrary...
Join the Unplug Movement, today, and you are in the vanguard of the true Digital Revolution.
Digital Is Everything... But Not Everything Is Digital...
If we can truly understand this notion, my deepest belief is that we can really change the world.
Drop the digibabble and who knows what we can accomplish...
To me, unplugging means more than just ignoring email on your designated Sabbath.
Unplugging means liberating your mind from the narrow constraints of digital prejudice -- that is the (I am generalizing and going over the top here, but for a point) notion that gamification will bring world peace, cure disease, solve world hunger and fix the environment... You get my point.
I have written before about the amazing developments on "dumb phones" that are helping to change rural poverty.
Doctors are once again looking at home visits as it becomes clear that in some instances it actually helps to save money, never mind provide better care.
Digital social networks are getting smaller as they revert to being efficient and effective means for us to connect with our real friends.
Big Data is actually being applied to real world problems -- as it should be -- from urban planning to the environment to viral epidemics and beyond -- not just to change your life because someone retargets you with the item you passed over yesterday...
Drones will one day change the way we travel and ship and maybe even receive goods -- despite the recent nonsense hype over single delivery of packages.
And, again, I point out all the digital-only companies that are all of a sudden discovering the real world.
I guess I could sum it up with Warby Parker unplugged to get to the next level... see what I mean?
Bottom line: Unplugging clears your mind, opens up new paths for problem solving, creates new and exciting relationships between ideas and ultimately drives the best use of technology.
Unplug -- try it -- listen:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
As free as we think we are, we have tethered ourselves to a vision of doing that is being driven by others.
Throw off the bowlines!
Unplug!
And catch those trade winds.
What do you think?