I unfortunately did not have to adjust very many of my habits to go on a media binge, just escalate my actions a little. That was when I realized how already dependent I was on my phone without even trying. I rely on so many things on my phone to get information, whether it be email, texts, or Facebook. Whenever I get bored or just want something to do I grab my phone and catch up on social media sites. So for the binge I continued doing that, but more often and I tried to explore more things on social media than I normally do. I started looking at the "moments" tab on Twitter which will get you up to speed on trending topics by swiping through about fifteen tweets on one subject. Also, I usually watch Netflix while I eat lunch to get away from school work for a while, so during my three day binge I continued doing this but also checked things on my phone at the same time. This resulted in me losing track of the show I was watching and having to rewind. Clearly I'm not as good at multitasking as I thought. Throughout these three days I really got sick of social media. I'm very aware that I already check it quite a bit, but I was looking at it in such excess during those three days and I became very annoyed with it. I looked at social media all the time, was checking news sources so often that there was no new news to look at and I started to worry that I looked rude by constantly being glued to my phone when I was in public. During the media binge I honestly was running out of things to look at. I know that there are constantly new posts and updates on all platforms but I was picking my phone back up and refreshing it so often that I felt like there was nothing to look at and I didn't really want to look at it anymore anyways.
As for the media fast, the first day of it was really nice. I had gotten so sick of staring at my phone while also catching up with things on my laptop that it was a really nice break. But after that I started feeling like I was missing out. I wondered if I was missing important things on social media and the news outlets that I generally check. I also missed my daily dose of Netflix, but honestly I did not need to watch Netflix at all during dead week so the media fast was a blessing in disguise. But I can only take so much of homework and studying so I did start reading a book that I've had sitting in my room all year when I needed a break from school work. I did continue checking my email during these three days which probably broke the rules, but I needed to get updates and correspond with my teachers during this busy end of the semester. I also didn't stop texting during the fast... guilty. But as a whole I did a pretty good job of fasting media and that was very beneficial to me as I needed to be studying anyway.
At the end of the week I realized that I do not need to be on my phone/social media as often as I was before, which will take some conscious effort. It was something I didn't even realize that I did so often. But I don't want to be cut off completely, I still enjoy catching up on news and seeing what other people are doing. This is something I need to do on my own time though, not when I'm in the presence of my friends and family, because they deserve all of my attention, not my phone.
No comments:
Post a Comment