I sign off for certain periods each day and I don't need to be on call for anyone. I still log onto the internet several times a day. Just not plugged in 24/7

As for unplugging from the internet, I do use it each day. I find the internet useful.

I don't unplug for long periods of time, like a wilderness adventure, or summer camp for unplugging.

Instead I unplug by just not being connected to it 24/7. I tend to use posts and comments to things like Facebook walls rather than real time chats. My relationships with people don't require me to be there for them 24/7.

I often tell people, I am not a 24 hour radio station.

Before the term 24/7 became popular, I was fascinated in 24 hour radio stations. They were more rare in the late 1960s / early 1970s. I had an interest in the tubes warming up and staying on for days on end.

Living in a basement room in my parents house, I had a 300 watt lightbulb with no lampshade. It did have a porcelain socket for safety. It reminded me of a powerful tube. During college, I set it up in my dorm room, but didn't use it that much. One time I did have it on when a friend was visiting and he said that he felt like he was being interrogated by the KGB.

Most radio stations, back then, went off the air, sometimes with the Star Spangled Banner to resume broadcast next morning. Each morning, they would warm up the transmitter tubes again. It took some time for the tubes to stabilize and then they would flip another switch to start the broadcast day.

TV, back then would often start the day, as well as ending the day with a test pattern.

During high school, I thought I would have a career in radio. Of course I didn't know about social media before that technology change.

I used to hang out in the studios of KWSU Radio, in Pullman to watch and chat with a student host named John Briel thinking it was good to familiarize myself with the field I was planning to go into.

Some material I got while attending Communications Center dedication.

One time, I arrived at the Edward R Murrow Communications Center early in the morning. It was dedicated with that name my senior year in high school. John let me in the building and I watched as he started up the station. When he turned on the transmitter tubes, I said, "they are warming up now." His response was, "yes, everything is starting to cook."

Back then, KWSU had a studio to transmitter microwave link. The transmitter was located out by Knott Dairy Center west of Pullman. Knott Dairy Center named for Joe Knott, a colleague of my dad in the Dairy Science Department. Also a neighbor who's house was kittycorner across the back fence from ours.

The control system was a telephone dial; a rotory dial. Different number codes commanded actions out at the transmitter. Codes for turning on the tubes, codes for sending just the carrior signal as well as codes for starting the broadcast day. One time, during sunset, I saw him dial up the transmitter so I ask, "what did you just do." His answer was, "I just turned on the tower lights." Allows pilots to see the tower and avoid crashing into it.

24 hour stations, in big cities, did interest me. I picked up both KGO and KNBR, from San francisco, at night due to ionospheric skip.

Even the 24 hour stations had to shut down sometimes for transmitter maintenence. KNBR used to have a broadcast week. At 1 am early Monday morning after their Sunday evening period, they went off the air. At 4 am, they would return to the air. Sometimes I would listen to the sign on and sign off with interest. KNBR would sometimes have interesting tones, after going off the air, as they callabrated audio, I guess. Then it would turn to static as they turned off the transmitter.

KGO never seemed to go off the air. It run 24/7, week after week. I figured they had 2 transmitters. When they needed to service one, the other transmitter was switched on.

Sure enough, many years later, on the internet, I saw a picture of the inside of KGO's transmitter building. 2 identical transmitters were side by side.