Disconnect Days

Friday, July 15, 2011


Social media is a great tool for keeping in touch with family, networking with clients from around the globe and sharing your opinions and lives with people you don't even know but can it get in the way of real life? My family and I are exploring that theory with what we are calling "Disconnect Days". Don't get me wrong, Lauren and I are big supporters of all things social media, both having (multiple) accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and of course Blogger but with 5-10 websites and accounts to check and update daily it begins to take up a lot of time! A normal night for us consist of listening to records, having a beer and enjoying one anothers time with our noses nestled sweetly in our.......iPhones. "Look at this cute photo Adriana just instagrammed!" or "WOW I can't believe what AJ just tweeted!" are normal conversation pieces around our home. Now I find nothing wrong with this, social networking is fun and especially useful for me for my freelance and business ventures but theres comes a point where you need to step back and smell the roses instead of putting vintage filters on a picture of them for your friends to post comments on.

"No time for cameras, we'll use our eyes instead" - Matt Johnson & Kim Schifino

Our first Disconnect Day (DD) was last Sunday and it happened to fall on a day that we had planned a cookout & pool party at our house. So the night before I texted everyone who would be attending and said "Tomorrow is Lauren and I's first disconnect day, long story but we won't be reachable by email or phone so the time is 1PM and you know the address see you tomorrow!". We woke up and Lauren asked "what time is it?" and instead of checking my phone I ran to the kitchen and checked the oven clock and DD was officially on. I did leave my phone on just incase somebody who was coming to my house was lost or needed to ask something - but I didn't answer texts or emails and once everyone had arrived I shut my phone off. It wasn't as hard as you would think and there was a noticeable change in our behavior. During the cookout I found myself more engaged in conversation and just enjoying my friends company instead of tweeting about how much I was enjoying it. Once everyone left for the day it was fun to just sit with Lauren and relax without both being on our laptops blogging or looking up soccer news. All in all I like our Disconnect Days and can not wait until Sunday to shut off the internet. You should give it a shot sometime!

Photos from DD (1 rule was our camera was allowed!)


Watermelon Babies!


Henry and his beautiful curls.

Christian knockin' back a cold one (root beer of course!) 


Sierra pulling a "Kiss and Run"


Cooling off in the pool!


This picture is way over-exposed but I love it anyway.






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5 comments:

  1. it will be super easy to disconnect next sunday at myles standish!!! I'll be disconnected once I get there basically :)

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  2. Craig, I think this is a great idea. Whenever I'm traveling and unable to be "connected" I always feel MORE "connected" to the world...hehe. Keep us posted on other activites you guys do on diconnect day. I feel an art day coming soon. PS- Please invite me :)

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  3. I try and do this everyday for a few hours when I get home from work. I leave my phone in my room and keep my laptop closed.

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  4. i think that's a great idea. esp during a party, it's so awkward when you're talking to someone and they grab their phone and start texting to someone else

    Local (to you, not me in CA) Providence Artist GIVEAWAY on my blog right now, check it!!!
    http://nittygrittymom.blogspot.com/2011/07/sickfeet-art-bundle-giveaway.html

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  5. thats funny that your posting about this cuz i was just thinking the other day that i need to ground myself from the computer for a day. sometimes i feel like it runs my life lol.

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