Technology has become deeply entrenched in our daily lives. We think it's time to take a closer look at our relationship with these devices.
Baratunde Thurston, Jacob Park and Megan Kashner will dive into this topic during a session called #Unplug and Look Up: Re-examining Our Future Relationship With Technology at the Social Good Summit later this month.
The theme for the 2013 Social Good Summit is #2030NOW, and we'll be focused on how we can use digital to pave the way for a brighter future by 2030.

Baratunde Thurston is the CEO and co-founder of Cultivated Wit. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller How To Be Black and served for five years as director of digital for satirical news outlet The Onion. Thurston co-founded the black political blog Jack and Jill Politics, advised the Obama White House and has a decade of experience in standup comedy.
Thurston will be joined by Jacob Park, the Forum for the Future's principal sustainability advisor. Park focuses on using scenario thinking to help people imagine more sustainable futures — and to design collaborative and mindful strategies to achieve them.
Thurston and Park will be joined at the Social Good Summit by influencers and activists such as Al Gore, actor Ian Somerhalder and Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal.
What role can unplugging from technology play in planning for #2030NOW? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

The Social Good Summit is where big ideas meet new media to create innovative solutions and is brought to you by Mashable, The 92nd Street Y, The United Nations Foundation, The United Nations Development Programme, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Ericsson. Held during UN Week, the Social Good Summit unites a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges.
Date: Sept. 22 through Sept. 24 Time: 12 to 6 p.m. each day Location: 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. Tickets: $130 for a three-day pass

Press: Press credentials will be given to press and bloggers from around the world for all Social Good Summit sessions and the Digital Media Lounge (DML). The DML is a fully wired workspace at 92Y to report out of, network with fellow members of the media and self-organize interviews and exclusive content from Social Good Summit sessions. The DML will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sept. 22 though Sept. 24. To apply, please fill in the form here.
“More is spent in a single month [in the U.S.] fighting the war on drugs than all monies ever expended domestically or internationally fighting slavery from its inception. Per month, we spend more on the drug war than we ever have trying to free slaves.”
 — Mira Sorvino, actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador
“We have to not just open our eyes to what’s going on in other places; we need to open our eyes to what’s going on right in front of us.”
 —Forest Whitaker, artist and UNESCO goodwill ambassador
“Water issues are directly connected to women’s issues. When I was working in India, I met girls who said, 'I’d love to go to school, but I spend four to five hours a day looking for water.'"
 — Brooke Loughrin, U.S. youth observer for the United Nations
“Ninety percent of the world’s population is covered by a mobile signal. Fifty percent of people in sub-saharan Africa own cellphones — there’s more on the African continent than in the U.S.”
 — John Nesbit, CEO of Medic Mobile
“If you knew how much information the campaigns had on you, you’d turn off your machines. And I mean that literally.” — Joe Trippi, political strategist
“You always hear the phrase ‘advocacy starts at home.’ In reality, with all the power we have to connect, it really means at home — where you’re sitting. It’s about doing what you can from where you are. We’re fortunate to have these tools to let you distill your message to make sure you’re getting out what you want to say and create a call to action.”
 — Claire Diaz-Ortiz, lead social innovator at Twitter
“The Internet is allowing for us to really experience people in some of the most distant places in the world — as other people just like us. So get to know people, seek out bloggers from a country you’re kind of curious about. It’s about building empathy and breaking through to the point of recognizing people as people.”
 — Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia
"We are living at a moment when anyone can be a diplomat. All you have to do is hit SEND." — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
“It’s about turning government into a platform for open innovation. Data by itself is useless. I can’t feed my baby daughter data, as much as I’d love to, because I love data. It’s only useful if you apply it to create an actual public benefit.”
 — Todd Park, U.S. chief technology officer
“One thing the humanitarian world doesn’t do well is marketing. As a journalist, I get pitched every day by companies that have new products. Meanwhile, you have issues like clean water, literacy for girls, female empowerment. People flinch at the idea of marketing these because marketing sounds like something only companies do.” — Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist
Image: Baratunde Thurston