Taking a Break from Tech
The following article was published in Crescent Considers, a series of short essays distributed through the Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education.
As we returned to work the final week of August, my Libby app notified me that it was my turn to read 24/6: Giving Up Screens One Day A Week To Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection. The timing of this arrival was not lost on me as we all collectively transitioned from an extended period of rest to the energetic pace of Crescent life. As I listened to Tiffany Shlain outline her reasoning for going 24/6 and how it has impacted her quality of life I was drawn to how this practice could not only shift my own family life but also found myself wondering how it might translate to the classroom.
As we returned to work the final week of August, my Libby app notified me that it was my turn to read 24/6: Giving Up Screens One Day A Week To Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection. The timing of this arrival was not lost on me as we all collectively transitioned from an extended period of rest to the energetic pace of Crescent life. As I listened to Tiffany Shlain outline her reasoning for going 24/6 and how it has impacted her quality of life I was drawn to how this practice could not only shift my own family life but also found myself wondering how it might translate to the classroom.
Shlain and her family have taken a tech shabbat for over a decade. Before dinner on Friday, everyone puts their phones in airplane mode and all tech and screens are off until the following evening. This practice has allowed her family to carve out a day where there is no expectation that they will respond or engage with the noise of the outside world. It has allowed her to build a cadence of reflection and intention into her week, and as she outlines in detail the profound impact it has had on her own wellness, relationships and creativity you cannot help but wonder what a difference it would make if more of us did the same.
The chapters she devotes to the impact on her children have lingered with me and sparked deep reflection on the use of technology in my own classroom. A day without tech here at school is near impossible at this point, but I know that for myself a byproduct of teaching through the pandemic was a far greater reliance on student devices. Since reading 24/6 I have been questioning the impact this reliance has had on my students' ability to think critically, be creative, and connect with one another as well as how much we are collectively contributing to “the infinite loops of addiction” as outlined by Shlain. I can’t carve out a tech-free day for my students but I can create predictable tech-free time within a lesson, a unit, and the week where students can be supported to slow down, remove the noise, and hopefully unleash their creativity.
