As part of a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of overdependence on technology, Prefects at PRISMS organized the school’s first-ever “Unplugged” Week from March 19th to March 22nd. Throughout the week, students were challenged to use progressively less technology. Our Prefects planned out technology-free activities for the students to participate in during lunch for each of the days. After a riveting morning announcement, Prefects handed out Unplugged Week checklists to students to keep track of what events they had gone to and what the day’s challenge was and then we were off!
On Day 1, students were requested to turn off electronics while walking or while in the lunchline, and we were so pleased to see no one with their phones out during lunch. The activity for that day was Charades, led by Prefects Rishi, Daniel X, and Ariana.
On Day 2, students were requested to turn off electronics for the entirety of lunch, and most students were successful in doing so. Prefects Christina and Angel organized a book-reading event for everyone to experience what lunch could be like without technology.
Day 3 was “Turn Your Phone Gray” Day, in which students turned their phone screens gray for the whole day so that using their phones seemed less appealing than before. Prefects Rishi, Wolf, and Daniel X organized board games for everyone to enjoy while eating lunch.
The challenge for Day 4 was to turn off technology for the entire day. Wolf created some very creative stickers to hand out to participants. The entire week culminated with an ice-cream party to celebrate those who successfully made it through the Unplugged events.
Thank you to Dr. Yang and the Prefects for this wonderful initiative! We will surely do this again.