Media Binge/Fasting

   If there is one thing that I have learned from this experience, it is how dependent I am on the use of social media and that is not necessarily a good thing. You never realize just how much you use these types of things until they are truly taken away from you for a good period of time. However, the same can be said about the binge we had to participate in as well. At some point it just becomes so repetitive and boring, there is only so much you can see in the matter of a minute trying to hit the refresh button to see if there is any new posts, or updates. That definitely struck me as very annoying, however interestingly enough there have been times where I have been so bored with whatever I am doing, that I begin to refresh that many times without being on a media binge.
               
        First, I want to talk a little bit about the media fasting that I participated in. We as Americans have the privilege to many things, and one of those is the art of advanced technology. It is now easier than ever to access an account whether that be on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. We have the ability at any time with the clock of a button to be logged in to our accounts. It makes it so easy and convenient to check everything. However, being on a fast and trying to completely cut out checking these sites was very difficult I must admit. There were times where I was bored and any other day I would grab my phone and check what the cyber world had to offer, but I remembered the assignment and immediately put my phone down. I also found it very hard to communicate with someone, for instance when you need to meet up or hangout it was hard to do that. . I caught myself doing this over, and over again mainly because as previously stated above; I am very active with my accounts. It's one of those things where you kind of just have to improvise or make sure you make plans in advance

     Next, I want to go into a little more detail about the media binge. For me, at first it seemed as if nothing had changed at all. I was so used to checking my phone religiously and staying on top of the virtual world making sure I saw the newest and most updated posts, tweets, etc. However, just like everything else you over-use it can become so repetitive to a point where you just can't stand it anymore. It's so interesting to me that my thought process went from "Oh, this will be easy, I do it all the time" to not wanting to even picking up my phone any more.

   It definitely was in interesting little experiment if you will because it really showed me the complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Both are very inconvenient to me because when you cut out the use completely, you feel the sense of being left out, however, when you over-use the use of social media or your phone it becomes very mundane.