Unplugged: Do you have it in you?

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said. “They’re really excited about it because we usually don’t have time to sit down and play.”

This week, Spitz said, that will change. But the simplicity will be short-lived for the Spitz family. And others in Needham admit they’re having trouble changing very much at all this month.

In Cathy Lunetta’s home, it’s been hard to stop watching television because, she said, they just got cable TV for the first time. Wasserman admitted that giving up e-mail — even for one day — is pretty much impossible. And Leslie Nelken, a mother of two, said she is beyond the point of unplugging, even though her family, and especially her 16-year-old son, have grown way too reliant on technology.

“Oh, my God. Way too much,” Nelken said. “I can’t disengage him. He’s either on iTunes, or Face-booking, or video games.”

Unable to end this digital dance, Nelken recently decided to learn a few steps of her own. The 53-year-old woman got online and signed up for her own account at Facebook.com, an online social network popular with the kids. She then sent a message to her son, asking to join his network.

“I had to think about it,” admitted Michael Quinlan, Nelken’s son and a junior at Needham High School. But ultimately, and a little reluctantly, the son agreed to let his mother in.