Shutdown Day
Shutdown Day was a day of action from 2007 to 2009 in which people should try to get by without a computer for a day . The aim of this campaign is to save energy and to encourage people to come back into contact with friends or nature more often.
aims
Shutdown Day as a worldwide internet experiment is intended to stimulate people to think about the extent to which their lives have changed due to the computer and the internet in recent years, and whether the more frequent use has neglected beautiful or more important things in life.
The purpose of this day of action is to shut down the computer for one day a year ( English to shutdown. ) To sign up other activities - such. B. Meeting friends or doing sports - to dedicate yourself to remembering that there is something else in life besides the computer.
history
2007
The day of action was launched in 2007 when initiator Denis Bystrov realized that he was spending too much time on the computer and wanted to spend more time with his family. With two friends, Michael Taylor and David Bridle, Bystrov started a website where he presented his thoughts and challenged the site's visitors:
"Do you think you can stay away from your computers for at least 24 hours a day, and if yes, can you pledge to do so?"
“ Do you think you can get by without a computer for 24 hours and if so, would you vouch for it? "
What started as a simple question soon attracted tens of thousands of users:
- The website received over 1.6 million hits in the first month of the campaign.
- More than 65,000 people attended the first Shutdown Day 2007 by not turning on their computers for 24 hours.
- The Shutdown Day commercial on YouTube was viewed 1.1 million times within a short period of time.
- 450,000 users registered on the website.
- The idea of the Shutdown Day became known in more than 200,000 media (internet forums, television interviews, etc.).
In the same year Bystrov thought about the future and the organization of further shutdown days. Eventually he started a non-profit in Quebec with another friend, Ashutosh Rajekar - who was also addicted to technology .
2008
The following shutdown day took place on May 3, 2008. Two days before that day, the Reuters news agency reported on the action and promoted turning off the home PC. Last year's participants planned to go to parks, get involved in public and clear the city of trash, or go camping.
2009
As previously announced on the website, Shutdown Day took place on May 2, 2009. The campaign itself ran from March 1 to May 2, 2009. From then on, reports were increasingly published on Fox News , CNN and the Washington Post . This year 55,000 people wanted to take part in the day of action and therefore voted on the website for “Yes, I can do it” - “Yes, I will do it” .
There has been no shutdown day since 2009.