Unplugged: Do you have it in you?

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With cellphones strapped to their hips and the internet in their pocket, they hustle down suburban streets, always racing off to somewhere. One child’s swimming lessons, another’s choir practice.

There’s Hebrew school to attend, and science projects to finish, and, finally, from many suburban families, there is screaming. People want to be unplugged, be unscheduled.

And so, in recent years, town officials have started giving people that opportunity. Month-long calendars have been created in Needham, Newton, Belmont, and Bedford suggesting daily activities that don’t include watching television or instant-messaging. Nights have been set aside in these towns — as well as in Northborough and Southborough — where meetings and school homework are forbidden, freeing families up to spend a quiet evening together. And in Needham — where the local “unplugged” or “unscheduled” movement began — a few brave souls decided to do something radical recently.

No e-mail. All day.

“When you combine the number of hours devoted to television and being online, it could be up to 10 hours a day or more,” said Jon Mattleman, director of the Needham Youth Commission, who planned “Needham Unplugged”. “So I really want people to think about it. If you’re doing anything for 10 hours a day, what does that mean for your life?”

Researchers studying the impact of technology on our lives say it’s a valid question, given the ways that digital gadgetry divide us as well as connect us. But in a world gone wired, calls for technological temperance often fall on unwilling ears — even when people say they want to go unplugged. And carving out family time for board games on the living room floor?

“That’s great,” said Ann Reynolds, a Belmont mother of three children, ages 13, 12, and 7. “But I’ve got hockey practice. I’ve got to be somewhere at seven o’clock. You have all these other things.”

Many people, like Reynolds, say they are looking forward to their one night of no homework and no town meetings this month. But between other obligations, many families hardly have time to change much else. Some folks in Northborough were apparently too busy to even learn about their town’s “unscheduled” night last week; there were four town meetings that evening. And

Mattleman’s “no e-mail” day didn’t exactly excite Needham residents — or even Mattleman’s own employees.