Media Binge and Fast

                The media binge and fast was an interesting venture. Starting with the media binge, as I usually am heavy on media viewing, doing more media-related activities became somewhat of a pain to find. Normally, I would have two screens on and multitasking between the two screens watching videos, browsing the web and social media. I ended up adding in music in the background and using my phone screen as another way to “binge” media. While I’m away from my computer, I would be using my phone to listen to music while browsing the web/social media constantly. That was basically my routine during the entire media binge, gluing myself to as many screens as I can while firing up as many media-related activities as the hardware allows me to. Throughout that time, I noticed that my overall attention dropped as I would miss incoming messages, key moments in videos, details in web posts and so forth. Even when I was trying to re-read/re-watch the missed thing, I would still have problem trying to focus in on the details. As my senses are loaded all the time, concentrating on one detail becomes extremely difficult even though I was used to having two screens on at the same time. When I’m away from my computer, things are very much bearable as I was already used to listening to music all the time and adding in constant browsing is not so different than what I would do when I was on my computer. On the third day in, my body was sore and tired, almost making me miss my class as I was tempted to just stay in bed because of how tired I felt. Nearing the end of the media binge, I was tempted to just cut it short by half a day and start the media fast. It genuinely felt like my ears are on fire, my eyes going crazy and my brain being fried with all the constant information being fed into it. When the hour struck, I was so relieved and could not wait for the media fast. Or so I thought…

                On the first day of the media fast, it genuinely felt nice to be away from all the electronics. Walking around campus with no earbuds on, hearing the sounds of the surroundings was a change in pace and I enjoyed it. At home, I would take out my guitar and jam out to my heart’s desire or just jamming when taking a break from my studies. Studying became so much better as I could fully attend to the words and giving attention to understanding the concepts and stuff. It was peaceful. However, on the second day in, I started to get bored. As I usually keep to myself all the time, commuting to and between classes became dull. I started to miss having things to attend to. At home, I would get bored easily when not studying, even playing my guitar felt boring after 30 minutes or so. Time felt so slow as I was bored out of my mind. On the third day, I was somewhat “lucky” as I was busy doing work for a final project thus taking out the majority of my “free time”. By the time I got home, it was already late and I just slumped down on my bed like a zombie. Writing it now and thinking back about it, I do not know what I would do on the third day had I not have something to keep my attention. I would have been very tempted to end it early just to fire up my computer and just watch a movie or two.

                The entire media binge and fast allowed me to understand my limits of what I can attend to while also proving myself wrong as I first thought that the media binge and fast would be an easy walk in the park. Although the binge and fast did not go well for me, it did make me appreciate the silence away from the media. My schedule is definitely going to change to include some silent time away from media to give myself time to relax my mind and body.