Why we should all attend a Digital Detox Retreat to Reset & Recharge our Brain

Cell phones and laptops are making us dumb. The Scientific evidence is piling up so put down the phone and pick up a book, take up a new sport, or play chess...

Growing up, the kids and I in the neighborhood spent lots of time outside, exploring, playing at the park, bike riding, creating games with our imaginations we could play, and enjoying life. I'm afraid the world my kids are growing up in is losing that and getting away for something like a Digital Detox Retreat, will become something well needed.

Technology is sold to us as a way to make our lives easier and bring us closer together; instead it seems to be making us hopelessly distracted and driving us apart.

Ever look up at a restaurant or on the train ride to or from work and see everyone on their digital devices? Can you imagine the amount of radiation filling that room with everyone constantly plugged in? I wonder what the real damage from our new digital age era will usher in...

NEW Studies Reveal Technology could be making us dumb

Tech advancements are cool and convenient but they also come with some unintended consequences. Our brains being “massively rewired” by tech, says neuroscientist Michael Merzenich in The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains, a Pulitzer-nominated 2011 book by Nicholas Carr. Merzenich warns that the effect of technology on human intelligence could be “deadly.”

Deadly? That's a strong word. So I went in search of answers. The evidence I found is overwhelming in favor of putting those tech devices down and spending some quality time in the real world by getting active and engaged socially. We talk more about this during our retreats. When I show folks the evidence, they are over whelmed and leave with a new found love for being social with real people, in the real world.

I feel as a society we've reached a tipping point in our relationship with our digital devices: What does a healthy relationship with tech look? how can we use tech in a way that make us healthier and happier?

We’re keeping up-to-date on all the latest in's and out's of on screen dependency and internet addictions to explore this new world and it's effects on us together. I’ll be adding Digital Detox articles to our blog as more research and evidence appears, hoping to answer some of these questions. Together, we can figure this out and find balance. In the meanwhile, start with a 2-day fast from your phone and let me know how that goes... - A.J. Johnson