On the Media Binge and Fast

For the media binge and fast I had to binge on any form of media for two days then devoid myself of any form of media for the following two days.

            The first two days I binged on media was honestly horrible. Besides the occasional text message or just scrolling around on social media, I had to fill my day with either Netflix or YouTube videos until my eyes hurt and my brain was fried. I had a hard time filling the times that I normally would use media like while driving or when I would just lounge around my apartment. I was sick of constantly being exposed to a screen and partially felt like my privacy was being invaded by these technologies. Even when I silenced the screen, the constant feeling of knowing the screen was on was annoying in itself.

            The next two days when I had to avoid any media came a sigh of relief. Or so I thought. I had thought that I couldn’t take anymore media and was ready for some good old fashioned fun like reading a book or just lounging around my apartment. What really came was utter boredom and constant sleep. Times where I would usually find myself looking at a screen like while on the toilet or in the morning when I would scroll through my Facebook feed would be completely boring and void of any “fun”. It was, however, not even as close to being as excruciating as the media binge.

            While I do believe that there is a time a place for everything, including digital media, I also believe that too much media is becoming a problem in our society as digital media becomes more prevalent. Similarly to this belief, I believe there is no difference between a man in 1956 aimlessly indulged in a newspaper and a man in 2017 reading through his Facebook feed. The problem lies addiction and indulgence of these medias as opposed to the technology itself.  

-Hiep Ngo