The Trouble with Going Off the Grid

I decided to ignore the National Day of Unplugging — a 24-hour break from the Internet, TV, iPods, GPS and phones — on March 19 largely because I thought it was stupid. I hate those acts of righteous self-denial that people do just so they can brag about them: health cleanses, bow hunting, reclaiming your virginity. So when the organizers called me the following week and asked if I would participate as the first in a series of celebrity unpluggers, I immediately thought, This is a fantastic idea. If it went well, I'd be trading 24 hours offline for hundreds of...