Shutdown Day advocates say go offline, get outside

By Julie Mollins

TORONTO (Reuters Life!) - Tune out, turn off and get away from addictive electronics for 24 hours on May 3 and enjoy the outdoors.

That's the message from organizers of the second annual global Shutdown Day who say using computers, televisions and electronic gadgets is having a negative impact on society.

"People are failing to socialize with each other and they are becoming outcasts, they are becoming more and more introverted," said Montreal-based Shutdown Day co-founder Ashutosh Rajekar in an interview.

Last year the group received 50,000 pledges worldwide on their website www.shutdownday.org/ from people who said they would not use electronic gadgets for a day. So far this year, almost 12,000 have committed to going 24 hours without using a computer.

The group plans to clean up parks and plant trees on Shutdown Day in the Montreal area, but they hope advocates of the event will organize a variety of events around the world.

"It's an exercise in spreading awareness, so the first few times it's going to be a very new experience for people who've never been away from their computer, and they will hopefully realize it's not such a dangerous thing," Rajekar said.

The 29-year-old MBA student at McGill University works as a file systems architect for high-performance computing products. Last year, along with colleague Denis Bystrov, a software developer, and some friends, they came to the conclusion they were spending too much time in front of their computer screens.

They decided to hold Shutdown Day as a challenge to see how many people could go without a computer for an entire day.