“No one can do it alone, no matter how great the machines are” –Amy Poehler, Yes Please

In my house there are multiple computers, iPads and iPhones, there’s Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, TV and On Demand, Netflix and Hulu, HBO, Showtime and too many video games/apps to even mention. Over winter break, when there’s not much else to do, it’s easy to get sucked into any of these media platforms. It’s easy to spend a few hours doing a lot of nothing on the internet, to binge watch an entire season of a show, or to obsessively play level after level of a game. It’s a little too easy to get lost in a screen for hours with your family sitting in the other room.

When you don’t live full-time with your family or with your friends from home, time and who you spend it with is important. Yeah, we’re young and we have our whole lives ahead of us, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider how you spend that life. That is why it is all the more important to shut the screens off for just a day. Read a book, spend some time with your family or friends without looking at your phone or the TV.

Consciously unplugging for a day or for just a few hours can make you realize how much time you usually spend on social networking or TV and give you an insight on things you can do without using a machine. Unplugging can also help you realize how important having conversations and keeping a connection with the people around you can be, forcing you to have conversations that are longer or more in depth than you realize.

Unplugging can also make it easier to get out and appreciate the outdoors. When you can feel lost in the endless stream of online content, turning off the electronics can help you to get back in touch with yourself and your surroundings. It can let you be more in the moment. Yes, there are good things about being able to be connected to people around the world, but getting offline can help get you in touch with your particular world and where you fit inside of it.