Overbooked Women's Book Author Series Presents Emmy Award-winning and Bestselling Author Tiffany Shlain

By Debby Block

During the pandemic, shared experiences are an excellent way to alleviate isolation and loneliness. The shared experience of reading the same book at the same time has always been the goal of On the Same Page, Charlotte’s very own Jewish community read, sponsored biannually by the Center for Jewish Education. This year, our community read book selection is “24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day of the Week,” by Emmy-nominated filmmaker, Webby Awards founder, and author Tiffany Shlain. Honored by Newsweek as one the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” author Tiffany Shlain is also our center’s featured author in this month’s installment of Overbooked: Strong Women, Extraordinary Circumstances.

Have you ever noticed an entire family sitting at the dinner table, but instead of talking, everyone is looking down at a screen? With screens literally at our fingertips, we feel pressured to check every email, text, and social media post at a moment’s notice. “You can buy anything, make anything, do almost anything anytime. And because we can do anything anytime, we feel we need to do everything all the time,” says Shlain.

How about giving yourself a respite from the overstimulating and overwhelming constant exposure to technology? Tiffany Shlain has created a new vision and life experience. She has blended the beautiful Jewish tradition of Shabbat, a day of rest, with a much-needed respite from technology and screens. She developed what she labels “Tech Shabbat” for herself and her family. After practicing and refining it for years, Shlain wrote her book “24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day of the Week.” With scientific facts and extensive research, as well as religious references, Shlain explains how this is the perfect gift you can give yourself — no matter your age.

Tiffany Shlain will be talking to our community on Thursday, February 17 at 8 p.m. This is a free, virtual event; however, registration is required. Once again, our center will curate a special Book Lovers’ Care Package to accompany the book. Packages include a signed copy of the book, a readers’ guide, and themed gifts. To register for the event or purchase your care package, please visit www.jewishcharlotte.org.

Excerpt from “24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week”

Living 24/6 feels like magic, and here’s why: it seems to defy the laws of physics, as it both slows down time and gives us more of it. I laugh a lot more on that day without screens. I notice everything in greater detail. I sleep better. It strengthens my relationships and makes me feel healthier. It allows me to read, think, be more creative, and reflect in a deeper way. Each week I get a full reset. Afterward, I’m much more productive and efficient, with positive effects that radiate out to the other six days. It even helps renew my appreciation for all that I have to access to online, giving me that wow, the Internet realization fresh each week. Who would have thought that technology could be more potent in its absence?

Yet what I’m exploring here is the power of a technology invented several millennia in the past. More than three thousand years ago, the concept of Shabbat (also known as the Sabbath) transformed the world. Before then, time had no pauses: it was day after day after day. Shabbat made it so each week ended with a day off, for everyone, of every social class. The run-on sentence of time got a period, and humankind got a chance to catch itreath and focus.