“Shutdown Day” is almost here. Just 8 days away.

What is “Shutdown Day”?

I’m glad you asked. Because I had no idea what it was, either.

Shutdown Day was founded with the sole purpose of spreading awareness about the pitfalls and dangers that lie in the excessive use of television, computers, and computing equipment like game boxes, cell phones, music players, online social websites, etc. that impinge on social space and interaction amongst our communities.

The idea of Shutdown Day project is simple - just shutdown your computer for one whole day of the year and involve yourself in some other activities: outdoors, nature, sports, fun stuff with friends and family - whatever, just to remind yourself that there still exists a world outside your monitor screen.

I think it’s a great idea. Raising awareness about our increasingly sedentary and anti-social lifestyles. But here’s the problem:

I CAN’T GO 24 HOURS WITHOUT A COMPUTER

Okay, there’s a chance I could make it. That depends on which 24 hours I have to go without a computer. I’ve gone many a Sunday without a cell phone, television, desktop or laptop. But during the week or on a Saturday? I’d be fired, or asked not to return. Look at a day where I freelance, I’m on a computer (in a semi-truck trailer) for 10 hours. On a day where I’m at “regular work” we’re talking about at least 9 hours, with a 20 minutes break in there somewhere.

Good idea. Decent reasons. But why not do it for the environment, too?

In United States households there are 168.4 million personal computers (The Old Farmer’s Almanac). So, figure how much CO2 we’re all releasing each year. The average computer would release 576 pounds of CO2 in a year. That’s a whole lot of CO2 in a year. Turn off every personal computer for a day? We’d keep 265,749,041 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere in just a day.

So, why not try it for a day.