Saturday, March 27th, is "No Tech Day." Sponsored by UK charity Practical Action, No Tech Day is a time to set aside the luxury gadgets for 24 hours "to raise awareness of how much we all rely on and use gadgets in our everyday life, and think what life is like for people in the developing world who do not have the same access to technology and energy."
Practical Action brings practical technology to developing countries, and has undertaken 141 projects since 2007. Going without your computer and mobile phone for a day is supposed to ease stress but also give "a taste of what life might be like without [tech], and get an insight into why the work that Practical Action does is so important."
Why would anyone want to give up something voluntarily? Practical Action's David Grimshaw explains his own thinking:
In our so called modern, progressive, advanced, western society technology enables us to “get through the day”. The very thought of giving up “all” technology or even just information and communications technologies for a whole day makes me enter a state of mind that is near to panic. How will I get things done at work without email or a mobile phone or access to Google (not to mention the more mundane flushing toilet or running tap drinking water - both of which are technologies)? On the other hand maybe it could be refreshing, re-energising, or a bit like a holiday!
Reflecting on this got me thinking about how my day was exactly a year ago today when I was living and working in Kathmandu, Nepal. I had no access to electricity for 20 hours in the day. Although you might think my mobile phone would work because it has battery power, in fact it often wouldn’t connect because some part of the network was without power or was overloaded with traffic. At night it was too dark to walk around without a torch (oops that’s another technology). In practice I learnt to depend less on technology and more on my own resources. I learnt that face to face meetings and conversations with people often produced better results than protracted email exchanges.
Where each person draws the line is up to them (no electronics? no stove? no toilet?); the point is to encourage reflection on those things we have given up and on what they do to and for our lives.
It's appropriate that such a day, then, would take place near the end of Lent, when many Christians abstain from good things for the same reason.
Given our technology-saturated world, a regular tech fast isn't a bad idea—though it is a bit strange that Practical Action is offering up an iPad to one lucky participant.
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