Check out this interesting article about a mother who wrote a book discussing what she experienced when she unplugged her family for 6 whole months.

What happens when mom unplugs teens for 6 months?

Here are some highlights:

• “Susan Maushart lived out every parent’s fantasy: She unplugged her teenagers.  For six months, she took away the Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones and video games.”
• “Her girls had become mere ‘accessories of their own social-networking profile, as if real life were simply a dress rehearsal (or more accurately, a photo op) for the next status update’.”
• “As Maushart explains…, she and her kids rediscovered small pleasures — like board games, books, lazy Sundays, old photos, family meals and listening to music together instead of everyone plugging into their own iPods.”
• “Her son Bill, a videogame and TV addict, filled his newfound spare time playing saxophone…he got so serious playing sax that when the gadget ban ended, he sold his game console and is now studying music in college.”
• “Maushart wrote that her kids ‘awoke slowly from the state of cognitus interruptus that had characterized many of their waking hours to become more focused logical thinkers’.”
• “Maushart realizes that living off the grid for six months is unrealistic for most people…But she encourages families to unplug periodically.