Media Binge and Fast

            When asked to do a media binge and fast, I was very intrigued. I am the type of person to be constantly on the phone, reading Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. I also use my phone for school, and talking to family.  The binge aspect of this assignment seems to be my normal life- how could I increase that?
       
            To begin the Media binge I used my phone, iPad, and TV. Constantly switching between each device, I found myself becoming bored and running out of things to catch my interest. Oddly enough Facebook didn't seem to have enough to show me. Even though I have roughly 2,000 "Friends"  on the site, algorithms seem to think I only want to see less than a tenth of their posts. Twitter quickly followed suit and I found myself refreshing to no new posts. I found these instances quite odd as it would seem to benefit Facebook to keep their user occupied and using the site by supplying new information with each refresh request.
           
                During the media binge I found it so hard to focus on studying, I just wanted to change that path and redirect my attention to something new. Focus was not something the binge reinforced very well. I found my attention span was at an entirely different level during this part of the assignment.

               The fast was an interesting turn of events. I would forget that my phone was not on me and go to check it for no reason and realize that it was not in my pocket. It gave me so much more time to clean, prep my lunch for the next day, read some homework, walk the dog, and actually get things done. The night seemed to last so much longer because of the productivity.

                  Because of the previous binge I had a lurking feeling that I was missing out on something, and that once I turned the social media back on I would be overwhelmed with notifications and messages.  However when I turned my phone on again, it seemed everything was where I had left off. I didn't have a barrage of phone calls or notifications. The world was still spinning. I would definitely do a media fast again- for the sake of productivity and to clear my mind. I feel that social media and technology give you the ability to not think, and just click. A media fast was a great way to wake up my productivity for finals week and I do recommend it.