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Digital Darkness

25 August 2014

Hello civilisation! We’ve been away on a wonderful mini-break at home and are now back in the Wi-Fi infused world of multi-media. From 6pm Friday to 8am Monday we’ve had a weekend of digital darkness – with no Wi-Fi, no TV, no smartphones, no laptops, no tablets and no games machines. Zilch! All locked away, to prevent ‘accidental’ surfing or emailing. I did however allow music, which backfired when the children insisted on playing their Cats musical CD at full blast for an hour, this being their payback for the removal of gadgets, as they know it drives me crazy. So, with round one to me and round two to them we declared an honourable draw and settled into the weekend…

Was the weekend a success? Yes. And yes again.

The children have been noticeably less over-stimulated and have slept more, read more books and played happily with their toys.

The adults have also been noticeably less over-stimulated and have slept more, read more books and played happily with the children.

We’ve been to a pottery café and spent a happy morning painting mugs each, had delicious fish and chips at Cromer, played Dungeons & Dragons (with real ‘gold’ coins to find), had fun making cyanotype prints and let the children run the kitchen for the day – resulting in crepes and tartiflette for supper. Yum! All great fun and good to see us all relaxing away from the pressure to stay in touch with the world.

What we’ve learned is that:

1) The days are longer and more relaxed without gadgets to mark time.

2) Children do not implode when Wi-Fi is removed from their orbit.

3) Digital darkness costs nothing and makes for a great weekend!

I think we will be doing it again and have realised that even a single Sunday without Wi-Fi would give us a relaxing micro-break.

So, this week have a think about what you could do over a weekend of digital darkness? Will you rediscover the CD player, as I did?

Next week: Break State!