I'm about to hop on a plane and fly from Beirut back home in a few hours. That's precisely when the National Day of Unplugging (NDU) starts. The purpose is to encourage young, hyper-connected, and frequently frantic people of all backgrounds to re-embrace the ancient beauty of a day of solitude and unplug their smart phones. It runs for the 25 hours from sundown Friday, March 4, to sundown, Saturday, March 5. According to the press release, the first NDU last March reached tens of millions … [Read more...]
My New Year's Resolution: Balancing Solitude and Connectedness
One of my New Year's resolutions is to reduce distractions. It's about curating your network but allowing time for strategic serendipity. I'll be writing about that topic in the weeks and months to come. I've discovered some wonderful discussion threads about one of my favorite topics: Information Overload and Strategies for Coping. As George Siemens points out the issue of information overload is not new. His definition of the problem is that it gets in the way of sustained mindfulness … [Read more...]
