Here’s your latest links for digital detox. More digital detox resources here.

A Face-to-Face Request Is 34 Times More Successful than an Email | Vanessa K. Bohns, HBR

Despite the reach of email, asking in person is the significantly more effective approach; you need to ask six people in person to equal the power of a 200-recipient email blast. Still, most people tend to think the email ask will be more effective.

Along similar lines, read Learn to Lead Through the Power of Presence, which highlights how technology has given us fantastic tools, but has diminished the leadership art of presence.

To be a leader in your organization you must embrace the idea that a call or visit is sometimes the prescription for moving the needle, managing conflict and building strong relationships.  Here are 5 principles you should incorporate in your leadership routines:

  1. Pick up the phone when projects are stuck.
  2. With critical projects, visit peers and leadership face to face.
  3. Speak face-to-face in tense or combative situations.
  4. Send feedback after phone or face-to-face meetings.
  5. Call or visit when nothing is pressing.

If It’s Hard To Imagine A Day Without Your Phone, You Need To Do It | Gracy Olmstead, The Federalist

We’re all about cleanses and detoxing these days. Sometimes we emphasize these things to extremes. But perhaps an occasional break can show us what we’re missing—and prompt us to foster better habits throughout our daily lives.

The idea of a “day without devices” would be a similar concept to the idea of Meatless Mondays, just focusing on technology instead of food. It could focus on a day trip somewhere fun—to hike, picnic in the park, visit a museum, go on a bike ride, or explore a new neighborhood.

Amazon launches new features aimed at making parents’ lives easier | Nicole Gallucci, Mashable
Amazon introduces a new way to keep track of your kids’ media time with their new “Parent Dashboard.”

10 Things You Should Know about Your Smartphone | Crossway.org

  1. Your smartphone is not all bad.
  2. Your smartphone is not all good.
  3. Your smartphone amplifies your addiction to distractions.
  4. Your smartphone pushes you to evade the limits of embodiment.
  5. Your smartphone feeds your craving for immediate approval.
  6. Your smartphone undermines key literary skills.
  7. Your smartphone offers a buffet of produced media.
  8. Your smartphone overtakes and distorts your identity.
  9. Your smartphone need not have these negative affects (sic) on you.
  10. Your smartphone can be a tool for knowing and enjoying God.

How to be a Tech-Wise Family & manage kids, technology & family | Andy Crouch

All the best things we want for our families—our children and ourselves—involve creating, rather than consuming.

And the best way to have a creative life, rather than a consumer life, is to make it part of the furniture.

Fill the center of your life together—the literal center, the heart of your home, the place where you spend the most time together—with the things that reward creativity, relationship, and engagement.

Push technology and cheap thrills to the edges; move deeper and more lasting things to the core.

Cellphones, conferences, entertainment, and hockey | The Upward Call
Kim was shocked at what she saw at a recent hockey game.

What If My Husband Looks at Porn? | Kara Garis, Desiring God
Kara offers an honest testimony and six points of advice for women who find themselves in this awful situation.

  1. You, sweet woman, are not in a battle against your husband.
  2. His sin is not your body’s fault.
  3. Embrace Jesus’ sovereignty and trust him for your husband.
  4. Your sin of bitterness is not justified.
  5. He needs you and your forgiveness now more than ever.
  6. Your husband is not your savior and you are not his.

Can We Gain the Whole World Wide Web without Losing Our Souls? | Amy Simpson

If the Internet doesn’t deliver on authentic connection, what keeps us coming back? Are we lured by the possibility of true connection, or have we become content to substitute participation and opportunities for self-expression? Perhaps we’re afraid of being left out or missing out on something we should know. Either way, most of online “connection” pales in comparison to the kind of connection we can find with people in the same room. Ironically, though, in our quest for connection in a virtual world, we often ignore the people we can see and touch.