Nothing with a Face

Deciding what technology to do without on Technology-free Day is a bit like deciding how to be a vegetarian. It seems simple at first. No meat. Well, does fish count as meat? There are plenty of pescetarians out there who wouldn't think of letting a morsel of cow past their lips, but have absolutely no qualms about eating fish. And what about wearing leather? Is it ok to kill an animal to get a pair of shoes if you don't believe in killing an animal to get a hamburger? Some vegans don't eat honey because they believe the production of honey exploits bees. Followers of Jainism, an ancient Indian religion that preaches non-violence against all living beings, wear face masks so that they don't accidentally breathe in a gnat and kill it. And for those of you who thought peanut butter was a perfectly acceptable vegetarian alternative, read this article about food contaminants. Apparently the FDA allows an “average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of peanut butter” before it starts investigating.

So, what's an animal lover to do? Some vegetarians draw the line at eating anything with a face. So animal products like honey and milk would be ok, but they won't eat anything that could look you in the eye. I tried adopting this policy for Technology-free Day, and decided to eliminate anything with a “face” or screen. So, no computers, no TVs, no cell phones, but then I realized {gasp} that clocks would have to go too. Well that threw me into a panic.

I tried another approach: nothing with an on/off switch. Pretty straightforward. Again, computers, TVs, cell phones, but what about lights? Lamps have on/off switches. So do coffee grinders and stove burners. Does a key in a car count as an on/off switch? Hmm.

Perplexed, I turned to Judaism. Jews, as I mentioned previously, have been going “technology free” for hundreds of years on a weekly basis to rest and observe “Shabbat”. They have very specific rules for this stuff, and strictly forbid 39 different categories of work. It is also forbidden to get someone else to do the work for you, so even though you can't cook, you also can't just get take-out. Making fire is forbidden, and this rule has been adapted to the modern age to ban turning on lights and even starting cars, since the spark plug lights a fire in the engine.

I realized that like vegetarians, I would just have to draw the line somewhere. And that the line could move. I could start out by banning the biggest offenders: computers (which for us includes TV since we watch movies and shows on our laptop). Next, I could expand the list of contraband to cell phones, clocks, cars, and eventually all electricity. I probably won't miss some of these things at all for 24 hours (the car), but some I cannot imagine living without. Embarrassingly, clocks are high on that list. So are coffee grinders. This is pretty telling about how I live my life and what I am a slave to. I think this experiment is going in the right direction.