Free Electric

I was looking around on the Adbusters website, checking out a few articles and whatnot. I ended up in their Campaigns section, where they talk about Buy Nothing day and several others that I am familiar with. I noticed one that I hadn't seen before in their magazines; Mental Detox week, which asks us to abandon all of our electronic devices for seven whole days. No TV, Ipod, Xbox, Playstation, computers, Blackberry's... no electronics whatsoever.

This idea intrigued me. I wondered what it would be like to take something like that on. A week without the luxuries of all my crackling toys and gizmos? Not too long of a time to give anything up, really, but then it dawned on me that it would be next to impossible for me to accomplish. I work with computers, faxes, and I always have a cell phone nearby (though I have never had a land line since I have been out on my own). How could I explain to my boss that I was taking a week off for "Mental Detox", without him thinking I am lunatic? And then, what to do with all of that time off? Too easy to pick up a controller or fire up the Mac in my bedroom, the standard diversions.

I would have to be in a secluded location, I suppose, in order to ever have a real Mental Detox. A place devoid of any wireless signals, or hydro actually, where I wouldn't have the means to utilize a game platform or aimlessly browse on a Blackberry even if I wanted to, because I know that I would find a way to make it work.

If you think that you can go through with this, let me know how it goes. I am going to keep an eye out for articles or stories from Adbusters talking about people's Mental Detox experiences.