[wincy]

My family has taken inspiration from Orthodox Jews. At sunset we take all our devices and put them in a cabinet, turned off. Nobody can even call us on the phone. We have a big fancy dinner with fancy silverware and invite people over. Nobody is allowed to have their devices turned on. Until sunset on Sunday we just hang out or do whatever we wanted to do anyway, just with zero screens.

We end up reading books, playing board games, and having a lot more conversations. We're much more likely to go to the park. We often don't know what time it is which is a nice feeling. We also take a lot of naps because we're staying up too late most of the week on our screens.

I've also found I'm super productive on Monday after our screen free time. We've been doing it for a couple months now and I really like it.

[duncan-donuts]

My wife is a new chicken farmer. For the last year I’ve spent most of my weekends in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but open sky and animals. Even when everything sucks, nothing is working, and I hate everything I still love working out there. I never look at my phone. No one ever calls me because the only people that matter are there working with me. The more I’m outside away from my day to day life the more I resent it.

This is just a long winded way of me saying what you’re doing is, what I think is, the only way to get our attention span back. Shutting off everything and really being with the people around you is the only way. And for anyone else reading this I think you should try it before you tell me I’m wrong.

[entropie]

Bonus: I bet you have some good chicken.

That sounds really awesome.

When I have my dogs around I usually don't miss human interaction. I go like daily in the woods with my dogs and avoid my phone. My GF is more like the one in the top comment + she has ADHS. We live together in a completely different world there.

[scubbo]

This is a lovely idea! My partner and I regularly take "Digital Detoxes" - weekend-long periods of no internet connectivity (initially we intended "no technology", but loosened that to permit eBooks or a single pre-planned pre-downloaded movie), and it's always a refreshing experience.

[ahub]

Adding one data point. I started doing exactly that a few years ago as a single man. Works wonder to fix sleep disorders, sync sleep cycle with the sun. Also helped with mood swings and boredom.

The last great point is that as soon as I know I don't have access to a screen, I get a lot done. Merely having the possibility of turning on hacker news or else makes me terrible at doing any kind of chore.

[sbmthakur]

What if a friend/relative/acquaintance wants to contact you for an emergency?

[wincy]

If it’s that big of an emergency they’ll come to my house. If it’s not that important it can wait. Being able to let go of that constant paranoia is part of why we’ve started doing this.