Media Fast

Internet or TV? Which would be the most difficult to abstain from I wondered. Well it turns out that it was neither of those as I only watch TV for sports and movies, and the internet is often more of a nuisance to me than anything else - the winner, radio. I have habitually turned on my radio nearly everyday for most of my life. Music has evolved into talk radio, mainly ESPN and NPR. So each day of my media fast was spent cruising down the road for a few minutes before I ever realized it was even on; I laughed and shut it off each time. I also noticed that everything unrelated to media in my life is also tied to the internet. Banking, papers, emails, recipes, editing etc. and found the temptation to surf the web, or check facebook wasn't as difficult as I assumed it would be.

Another interesting thing I noticed was what happened away from home. A media fast at home is relatively simple as there are so many other things I can do, but hanging with friends at a bar or at their houses was a challenge. My senses were noticeably bombarded by incessant noise from every direction, and from moving images and colors no matter where I looked. If I went to the bathroom at a bar the music was being pumped into that area as loudly as it was in the main area. Some restaurants even have TV's in the bathrooms or newspapers behind glass cabinets so you can read the news while taking care of business.

There is a couple that I hang out with who normally play little music, rarely look at their computer and never have their TV on; unless of course I turn it on to watch a game, so I hung out with them for most of a day.

My approach to the media fast was to do it over Memorial Day weekend because I knew I would spend most of my time on the beach or outside in some fashion. So mostly it was easy, but for the times I went to a bar or to a friends house, the amount of media that our senses are overloaded with was incredibly noticeable It was a good reminder to me that I need to relive the days when silence was easier to attain and I will have to seek out these moments more often.