Got up this morning and it’s a
little after 11 am and immediately I became aware of and reminded myself of my
“media fast” assignment: that I cannot use any form of electronic device or
media for the whole day and to journal throughout this experience. This already kind of feels awkward. I had already planned to go to downtown
Portland today with my roommate and stay at a coffee shop for several hours and
this hopefully will allow me to start off the day well, because it will get me
away from the house where our laptops, desktops, landline phone and other
electronic equipment is. My roommate and
I will leave in like 30 minutes to catch the bus. Already my mind wants to check online when
the bus will come so that we don’t have to wait too long, lol!. At least I don’t have a cell phone on me,
which would give me the temptation to find out, via one of it’s apps, exactly
when the bus would be stopping at our location.
Oh well, alrighty then, off we go!
So we’ve been at a downtown
Portland Starbucks coffee shop, for about 4 hours now. While my roommate played this online MMORPG
game called The Secret World on his laptop, I read for about an hour, then took
a 2 hour stroll throughout Portland, then when I got back ate, and then read
for another hour. And now I’m journaling
here, roughly 6pm.. It’s been relatively
easy to stay away from electronics, because I’ve been in downtown Portland with
all the distractions that it has. In
fact, I kind of looked forward to the stroll, I guess because I didn’t have any
electronic options to do instead of my activities today. It's also kind of nice not have to concern myself with emails today and I can just unplug from that. The fact that I don't have to check or wait for responses via emails today is kind of a bit of a stress reliever for me, lol.
This tells me that that email is
crucial to the quality of my communication.
That I am no longer satisfied with waiting until I see someone face to
face, but am fine with compromising my quality of communicating with them
through email, because at least that person is connecting with me and it still
does feel like a connection, even though it is through electronic means. I guess it feels like a connection, because
someone is reciprocating your thoughts with their thoughts, they are reacting
to what you wrote and visa versa. And
this is a fundamental aspect of a relationship, to give and take and go back
and forth, evidence you can have a “relationship” online, or at least one of the important elements of a
relationship..
Being away from technology
definitely reminds me of how society and myself are shifting more and more
toward technology and farther and farther away from personal human, face-to-face,
interactions. If fact, I would be
surprised if there are now some human beings who feel they are not quite in
their human element IF they are unplugged from technology. I hope to make a point to never “evolve” that
far in that direction..
In fact, on a personal application
note, I’ve already come to the conclusion that this “all-day media fast” is
beneficial for me! In fact, I’m
seriously entertaining the thought of doing this once a week, like on
Saturdays, because of what it frees me to do when there are not these normal
options in my life.. More than this
“media fast” hindering me, it has significantly freed me to really jump on
chores, exercise, reading physical books that I can hold in my hand (a
tradition and experience that we’re losing), and a better ability to stop and
reflect on life and just breath; a time for solitude and not just always being
this busy-body, which technology influences me to be: always needing to check
for new emails or entertain myself with YouTube, information, etc. So I think this will become a new element in
my lifestyle. Yes, I will still get my
first cell phone (yes, my first cell phone) in, I think, August, but I will commit
to one day a week to where there is an all-day media blackout in my life..
Well, it’s time to head home on the
bus with my roommate…….
Okay, I’m home now, it’s about 8:30pm and so I’ll now be
doing something I have been procrastinating on for at least 2 months now: cleaning out my suv and then washing it by
hand. Yes, I do feel more willing to do
this chore since I don’t have all these technological options available to
me. Indeed, this seems to be a major
theme in this all-day journal…
Ha! Just got done now
cleaning out the vehicle. Too dark to
give it a good scrub. I think I wash it
tomorrow morning while I’m still on a non-procrastinating streak. Bottom line: I didn’t have really any
technology entertainment to procrastinate from these important things to..
It’s about
9:45pm and I haven’t fallen temptation to using any type of media: laptop, cell
phone, landline telephone, video games, music, etc.
Now onto some of questions my teacher wanted us to ask of ourselves:
-What motivates my
media use?
A need to stay connected to what’s going on in the world,
what other people are thinking about, and entertainment: TV shows, movies,
YouTube, Wikipedia, etc. Though I’m not
as much into online news sites like I was so many years ago. I do hope the website presentation assignment
coming up resuscitates that interest..
-How do you get your
news?
Well, I don’t really get it from online news sources any
more. I generally get news that I guess
is “worthy news” information from some of my online intellectual friends who
will mention it in a forum or on their Facebook page or blog or hear it by word
of mouth from someone on the street. There’s
a McDonalds in downtown Portland that I might stop at from time to time that
has a TV that is always on CNN, which I’ll take the time to watch a little. I think if I had an actual TV in my
apartment, which then makes the news so visually entertaining and therefore
stimulating, then I think I would watch the news more. As it is, I have a laptop, which is my source
of information and the world and I choose to not look at the news, maybe because
I NO LONGER LOOK AT IT AS TRUTH, BUT ENTERTAINMENT.
-How much of my life
revolves around the media I use?
Probably up to 10 hours a day if it is not being filled with
school and other activities.
-Did anything about
my experience surprise me?
Yes, basically how much more easy it was to do things that I
tend to put off. I guess too
many options in my life have caused me to rationalize and justify
utilizing the media world more than I should.
What has also surprised me is how the age old wisdom of “Do everything
in moderation” seems to go out the window when it comes to the media that is so
accessible and pleasurable as entertainment.
I’m probably spoiled with the
entertainment I receive, because I don’t get it as a reward like at the end of
a hard day or the main event that evening that I go to with someone, which
would have happen in the old days. I
probably don’t appreciate it like we did when the Internet, for example, was
all new and fresh. Reminds me of
Nirvana’s song, Entertain Us.. “Here we
are now, Entertain us!!……..”
-How easy was it to
give up media for a day?
Well, it would have been more difficult had I not had a day
full of stuff to do, which was how I set up my media fast day, lol!! Yeah, I did feel a little out of my element
even with things to do.
-What would a world
without media be like?
People everywhere would probably be significantly more
personal with those in their conversations with each other, a much stronger
concept of community would return to world, people would have more overall
happiness and contentment in their lives, but
people would be significantly more ignorant, there would be a much great
prevalence of dogmatic and closed-minded ways of thinking, believer &
non-believer alike, and the world would be more divided in terms of our
ignorance concerning how similar, as
human beings, we all are, despite
our being half way around the world in a completely different culture, from
each other.. That would be a summarize
of most of what would happen at least..
-Does the media we
use define who we are?
I’m sure it definitely does.
Obviously my day felt different, with more motivation to do things in
some respects and it also felt like I kind of unplugged from the Matrix,
lol! So that’s proof that the media
influences my lifestyle, but does it define
me… I don’t know. I can kind of see
it being put that way as kind of negative, that whether I like it or not, I’m
shaped and molded by the media. But I
guess it has and I’m now defined, because of the media, as a less likely to go
out of my way and have a cup of coffee with someone, person, which
face-to-face would be more personal, a higher quality communication could take
place, and a better friendship/or relationship could be cultivated because of
that. And I value what I just said, but
I can tell that I am less likely to really desire that, because of the media
and the numerous ways we can communicate with each other. That would be an example of how it’s defined
me…
Anyways, ending my journal here, it’s 10:40pm and I’ll wrap
up of my “all-day media fast” with organizing my room and office, yet another
activity that I haven’t made a priority like I could have. I will probably put these journal entries as
a post on my blog to always remember….
