SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — A new campaign is promoting Yom Kippur as a day to disconnect from technology.
Offlining, Inc. is the brainchild of advertising and public relations CEOs Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, self-professed children of the Silicon Revolution who launched www.offlininginc.com just before Father’s Day in June urging dads to put down their mobile devices, turn off the TV and spend time with their families.
Now they are urging all Americans, Jewish or not, to do the same on Sept. 18.
The two friends created an online campaign to support the initiative. One shows Tiger Woods with his hand on his heart and the slogan “You don’t have to be Jewish to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.”
Yaverbaum and DiMassimo, who say they make their living by using technology, write on their site that putting away the machines sometimes may be the best way to go.
Visitors to the site are encouraged to sign an online pledge to hold 10 “No-Device Dinners” between now and Thanksgiving, and to use the time they would have spent online to notice the people in their lives.
