WEB 0.0: INTERNATIONAL INTERNET-FREE DAY:

JANUARY 27th 2008

Do you check your inbox every five minutes? Do you lose track of time surfing the online shops? Have you e-mailed a colleague at a desk next to you? Do you podcast your daily thoughts, rather than call your mother? Fear not: hope is at hand. Take a break on this Sunday January 27th: Internet Free Day.

An idea promoted by the online think-tank of social innovation the Global Ideas Bank, Internet-Free Day is a day to log off, get out and enjoy the real world.

Why an Internet-Free Day?

- Because there's no replacing face-to-face interaction with real humans: we are social animals
- Because you can't get your five a day from e-mails
- Because you can't subscribe to an RSS feed from your grandma
- Because people's faces are clearer in reality than YouTube
- Because your Blackberry is surgically attached to your hand...
- Because we all need a bit of R&R: reality and reflection
- Because if this has riled you, you really need it....

This is not all tongue-in-cheek. There are reasons why companies have e-mail free Fridays, and why there are internet addiction courses and camps, and why people are doing research into the psychological effects of excessive internet use.

And will one day off hurt? And we're being nice: it's a Sunday as well. After all, this new technology should be a means to an end, not an end in itself. It should be adding to people's lives, not detracting from them.

So that's what this day is about: not an anti-internet day (we are, after all, a web-based project), but a pro-family, friends, health, freedom day. Stay off e-mail, hide the PDA, unplug the PC and don't be woven in the web....on Internet Free Day: Sunday January 27th.