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If you didn’t do one of these three things today, you can stop reading this article immediately:

1) Woke up and immediately looked at your phone.
2) Checked Facebook while eating a meal.
3) Played Candy Crush on your smartphone while on the toilet. (Or was that just me?)

Still with us? Okay, well this just shows that a lot of technology is seeping into every momentary pause in our day, which many educators aren’t exactly happy about. One elementary school in Japan decided to do something about it, implementing a “No Technology Challenge,” which asked students and their families to strive to completely eliminate the use of technology in their homes. Netizens were not pleased.

Here’s the tweet that started it all:

▼ “A flyer we received from the elementary school…
no technology is going to be tough! (^^;;
Good morning!”

The flyer clearly defines technology as TV, video games, computers, cell phones, and smartphones. It goes on to list the reasons for limiting the use of technology at home. Here are just a few that are given: increased communication and connectedness between family members, better sleep, less illness (especially headaches), better posture, and increased physical strength.

There’s no denying that in today’s technology-drenched world, we all could probably spend a little less time online and a little more time outside. But what really shocked netizens around Japan is what’s written on the bottom half of the flyer: a guide to technology use that asked students to strive to reach Level 5:

Level 1 : No technology during meals
☆Experience how fun and interesting your family conversations can be while eating meals!

Level 2 : No technology after 8pm
☆You can get in the rhythm of going to bed early and getting up early!

Level 3 : Use technology for less than two hours every day
☆Make an effort to only watch your favorite show or decide on a time to use technology!

Level 4 : No technology once you’ve gone home from school
☆Use all your time at home for things other than technology!

Level 5 : No technology from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed (other than when you’re at school)
☆ You can think of a good use of your time and spend every day to the fullest.

This particular elementary school even asked parents and older family members to join in on the “No Technology Challenge.”

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Reaching Level 5, no use of technology whatsoever, is a hard task even for young elementary school students and may well be impossible for teenagers who need to do research and communicate with friends online and adults who most certainly use some sort of technological device at work and home. Netizens seemed to agree and weren’t afraid to voice their opinions on the matter:

“I don’t even know if I could get to Level 2”

“This would be impossible for my family.”

“I can only understand implementing Level 1.”

“If you really think about the significance of technology, Level 5 looks to set back the progress of society.”

“Won’t we all become stupid if we follow these suggestions?”

“Oh, so this is a policy to raise ignorant people who don’t watch the news and don’t know about anything. Got it.”

As crazy as Level 5 seems, this flyer and the No Technology Challenge was created to get young students in the habit of playing outside and learning to communicate with people face-to-face instead of keeping their heads buried in a 3DS, and that’s definitely a good thing in our book. We have a feeling these teachers may be following the old saying, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” trying to get students to strive to not use technology at all, knowing that in doing so, they’ll probably land up somewhere around Level 2. What’s more, if you ask students to go to Level 5 and get rid of all technology, Level 3 doesn’t sound so bad. You clever teachers!

But what about you, dear reader? What level do you think you could reasonably reach if you tried really hard for one week? Let us know in the comments section below!

Source: Burusoku
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons (Evan-Amos, Jared C. Benedict, Justin14, Justinhu12), edited by RocketNews24