Binge and Fast Reflection

Going into the media binge and fast I had a few expectation about how things would go. Binging would be easy as I already constantly listen to music, watch TV, and scroll Twitter. Fasting... not so much. Did you people realize that your media binge and fast fell perfectly in line with the NHL and NBA playoffs, the NFL draft, and the beginning stages of an MLB season? The sports fan in me died while attempting to complete this assignment. 

Okay maybe that's extremely dramatic and no one forced me to do anything…and I only missed like two games. Big deal! But I digress. The media binge turned out to be an up and down experience. I recently got into “Trailers Park Boys” on Netflix and my mouth watered at the chance to binge watch it for a few days. Got from season one to five in a few days all while tooling away on my phone. Usually on twitter or Reddit. I usually walk with headphones on campus but for the binge I started wearing them anytime I had to walk for more than 5 minutes. Fun to listen to music, not fun when you can’t choose a song.

The binge negatively affected my life in the following ways: I started having weird insomnia. I fell asleep like a baby at night but now I consistently wake up two hours before my alarm unable to fall back asleep. So naturally when I couldn’t sleep I just watched more “Trailer Park Boys.” This was pretty much the only significant drawback but not being able to sleep is a cruel torture.

The fast was also up and down. While I was a bit irritated that I missed out on the Chicago Blackhawks getting eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs (Detroit fan and I just can’t stand them), I got to hear how the game was decided from one of my buddies. A huge Blues fan, he regaled me with a tale of how St Louis overcame Chicago in OT. Seeing his excitement and hearing about the game from his perspective was like having all the excitement of watching the game without having to waste three hours of studying to watch it.

Another positive I noticed from fasting was that I spent a lot more time with my friends. We regularly play basketball as study breaks but we played more often and a lot longer when I wasn’t prioritizing something on TV.

So I guess a few of my assumptions about the media binge and fast were right. Fasting was hard and binging was easy. I watched way too much inappropriate TV and realized I don’t need to see things first hand to enjoy them. Probably wouldn’t do it again but I’m glad I gave it a try.