Media Binge and Fast

Technology has become so intertwined in my daily life that it's easy for me to forget just how much I use it on a day to day basis. I sometimes wonder how different life would be had I not had technology, and then I quickly stop as I pile on hypothetical thoughts on how I would accomplish many of my responsibilities. That's why when I first heard about the media binge and fast that we would be doing for class, I was kind of dreading it. First of all, while I do use my media for many productive causes, I'm not one who's always on their devices. I believe to much of a certain media can pose as a distraction from life and the people around us, so I try my best not to get to caught up in it. My second issue was that I communicate with friends, family, and my girlfriend via Snapchat and DM's on other apps, so It was going to be hard to not check the messages I would be receiving. So long story short I wasn't looking forward to this project, and now I will tell you all how I tried and failed on both parts of this mini challenge.

Media Binge

I started off Monday with my phone readily on me at all times, and I looked to it every time I had the opportunity to do so or was bored. At first it was nice; I would spend time reading up on interesting articles from places that I normally wouldn't read, like National Geographic. I was hooked on that and would find myself reading up on animals and scientific discovery's, which was entertaining for awhile. I would take breaks here in there to function as a normal human being and take care of my responsibilities (like classes, and time spent with family and friends). But not even fully through the first day, I broke. My eyes felt strained, my head hurting with an overflow of information I had been taking in, and it was once I started reading articles from the Snapchat Story of  Daily Mail (a tabloid/celebrity magazine) that I realized that I was not cut out for this. I felt as if I wasted a good majority of my time just on my phone alone and that the information I was reading up on was useless and had no value or point to it. So it was at this point that I decided that I was going to use my phone as much as I could but only if it was for productive reasons. For example, I'm a Spanish major so I have 3 dictionaries on my phone to look up words and phrases should I find myself stuck on what to say while writing for my Spanish courses. I have news apps in English and Spanish that I also frequently read, and finally I used my phone for the standard social media/ texting/ calling/ photos.

Media Fast

If I thought that it was hard to constantly keep a screen to my face, I was not even close to prepared to just cut off technology from life at all. I feel ashamed about it but I was also not successful at this part of our mini week experiment. I can go a fair amount of time without using any social media, but I will always check my phone because I have conversation's with people important to me in my life and I couldn't just tell my family, hey don't text me or call me, I'm doing an experiment. I did tell them and gave them a mini warning, but that didn't stop them from texting regardless and I still had my phone around me so I eventually gave in to temptation. Although my media fast was unsuccessful, there's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be able to do it if I absolutely had to. I just didn't feel as inclined to do it this time around.

In conclusion, I can say that I really appreciate having the media I have in my life and the role it plays. I definitely will have my Screen Sabath's, but I don't forsee me cutting out media from my life anytime soon. A good rule for life that I follow is that no matter what it is your doing, everything is good in moderation. So never get carried away and you'll be okay.