03/31/11 News of Butler University Junior Katie Day can be found pretty much night and day by calling her cell phone, sending an email, texting, checking one of her blogs, or accessing Facebook. But all of that will come to a halt, at least for 24 hours, on April 7 and April 8 when Day will be participating in an “unplug challenge” that she organized through the Butler Catholic Community.
As a part of the challenge, participants are asked to turn off their cell phones, sign out of email, and stop updating their lives on Facebook or Twitter.
Although the unplug idea has been used in several cities around the United States, Day has always been one to grab on to an idea and make it fit for those around her. The opportunity for this project came about as a part of her internship with the Center For Faith and Vocation.
The premise of the challenge is to make people aware of the social problems that are arising when they spend more time interacting with digital interfacing rather than other human beings.
Day said, “Like others, several people on or near the campus have started questioning what people are missing out on by not having face to face conversations because they are spending so much time on tech devices.”
Those joining the challenge at Butler will walk along a parkway for four miles. Day said they are preparing quotes and questions that will be posted along the way to get people thinking or talking and then meeting for a dinner to hold real conversations.
But until the 24-hour challenge , Day will probably still be connecting with everyone she knows as she travels to Houston to watch the Butler team play basketball.
She has also mapped out her summer that will include two weeks working at an orphanage in Honduras, about six weeks volunteering throughout Ireland, spending a week with family at Holden Beach in North Carolina, two weeks hanging out at her home in Plymouth, and then heading back for her senior year at Butler where she will be serving as a Butler student orientation guide.
Carol Anders Correspondent
