National Unplugging Day came to Winchester as Parents from all around all the UK pledged to support the UK’s National Unplugging Day on Sunday 25th June. We went along to take some photographs of the event to document the festivities. A camera crew from the BBC went along to to interview founders Charlotte and Gemma, as well as some of the children participating in the day.
National Unplugging Day selected Winchester as its location to hold a celebration of unplugging, encouraging families to go on a digital detox for a day and reconnect with each other offline.
Following on from the huge success of the last two years, it is expected that over half a million parents will have pledged to unplug and take part in National Unplugging Day accompanied with families all over Hampshire at the offline event nearBarton Stacey, on the outskirts of Winchester.
Please enjoy some of the photographs here
On Sunday 25th June, people from Hampshire and the South East enjoyed a fabulous day of tech-free fun at the beautiful Riverside Cottage and Yurt in Barton Stacey, near Winchester in Hampshire. The day was in the grounds of this stunning Hampshire Hideaway with beautiful gardens overlooking lavender fields and local vines. The event created an environment where families and individuals can ditch their gadgets, devices and phones for the day and go off-line together making memories with a whole host of fun and exciting workshops.
The National Day of Unplugging in the UK recognises the value and importance of technology in today’s society whilst trying to encourage people, especially families and young children and the connected generations who have grown up with ever-present technology, to be more mindful of their digital usage. This day is not intended to be a one-off, but rather a starting point to encourage people of all ages to embrace a healthy lifestyle by regularly setting aside time away from their digital devices.
National Unplugging Day was created by two busy working Mums: Gemma Johnson and Charlotte Vaughan.
Charlotte Vaughan
Charlotte Vaughan, Co-Founder of National Unplugging Day, Mum and Winchester Resident found she was suffering from chronic headaches after spending too much time spent on her smart-phone and laptop and wanted to create a change to her and her family’s screen time usage.
Gemma Johnson from Buckinghamshire, Founder and chief executive of leading parenting site, My Family Club, decided to launch the initiative alongside her friend and PR Advisor in 2015 after she was contacted by parents looking for advice on how to manage their children’s screen time and digital burnout.
Gemma Johnson
Parenting and family tech expert Gemma Johnson, Founder of MyFamilyClub.co.uk and National Unplugging Day in the UK says “As a parent of three children, I appreciate how demanding and stressful it can be managing the day-to-day tasks of a busy family life whilst also staying on top a parallel digital world. With technology an inherent part of everyday life, it’s easy to feel bogged down and opt to take a back seat at home as the daily demands take over; Charlotte and I have created this event where families can spend the day together completely unplugged to experience the joys that spending time together brings when there are no distractions. We want to help families kick-start healthier digital habits and we believe National Unplugging Day is the perfect way to start this.”
A whole host of Wellness businesses have been brought in to provide ‘dopamine boosting’ activities and include a number of Winchester-based experts who will be on hand running the workshops and include the following:
• Winchester-based Mandy Papas Hypnotherapist will be running an introduction to Mindfulness course
• Winchester-based Yoga Teacher Jenny Joslin from JJ Yoga will be hosting a Parent/Child Yoga session
• Integr8 Dance, a dance school from Winchester, will be hosting a StreetDance workshop for children
• BeatsDisco, DJ based in Winchester will be supplying the sounds and running a DJ Vinyl Workshop for Kids!
Other experts who ran Workshops included:
• Chris James – Mind Body and Health Guru and Yoga Teacher to Millie Mackintosh
• Hoop Like a Boss – Hula Hoop Teacher and Expert
Leading Mind and Body Expert Chris James has written a special meditation for National Unplugging Day and will personally guide individuals attending the event through a Mind-Body Cleanse sequence taken from his new book Mind Body Cleanse.