TV cameras in Brannoxtown NS on Monday

Monday will be a big excitement day for the Fifth and Sixth classes in Brannoxtown NS, when an RTE's TV crew is coming down to talk to them about life without digital gadgets.

That's because almost all of the pupils have accepted their Principal's challenge to cut down on or do without their iPods, TVs, mobile phones and other gadgets in support of their classmates of the McGlinchey family, who are doing so as a Radio 1's John Murray Show experiment.

"Not all of them are doing a total abstinence," says the Principal, Esther Reddy. "But many of them are doing without TV, or their phones or DVD players, or a mixture."

Esther and her own family are gone 'cold turkey', doing without gadgets completely for the week. She says it is 'harder on the children', and she hasn't been able to do things like check up the 'Diary' on the internet since it began earlier this week.

"But for myself, I find I'm much more relaxed," she says. "When I go to bed now I'm tired and I go to sleep, for instance. And I'm not as hyper as I normally am, when I'm getting phone calls all the time, or texting people. It's all very positive, actually."

The McGlinchey family is one of two doing the complete 'digital fast' for the week on the John Murray Show.