Captain's Log- Blog Forty Two

72 Hour Media Fast

The day before embarking on my media fast I started mentally preparing myself for 3 days of, to put it frankly, hell. Now having completed the fast I wouldn't necessarily call it hell, more like an moderate annoyance. Day one started off normal....for about 15 minutes until I reached for my phone to check messages, likes, and comments of the night gone by. Stopping myself after unlocking the screen, I embarked to take a sad, musicless shower (which probably resulted in less water consumption). My morning commute downtown to my internship seemed to drag as my air conditioning was my only companion. The rest of the day went on as usual except for when my phone would buzz and I would instinctively pick it up only to mentally stop myself and return it to its pocketed home. Pausing here to talk about how much of my media consumption is just pure instinct. Wake-up= laptop to check school email, Bored=phone, awkward= phone, doing something cool=phone, seeing something cool=camera... and so on. Also questions...so many unanswered questions without the aid of google. One of the most annoying thing about this fast was watching the tiny red number (indicating notifications) get higher and higher each day on my social media apps. My mind filled with curiosity/mild panic of the "important" events and conversations I was missing. Day two and Day three continued much like day one, normal with the occasional impuse/ instinct to grab at my phone/Mac to listen to a podcast, music, or fill a dull/awkward/boring moment. Many moments passed were I found myself blanking out in thought as I stared at a wall or others on their phone waiting for something non-digital to take place. Nights were challenging at first- a night normally filled with television,web searches, youtube, and article reading had to be substituted (mostly with comics, which proved challenging after night one as I ran out of new issues). I learned that a lot of my interactions/connections with my friends are centralized around media. Would I consider doing this again? Possibly, only if I find myself being swamped or consumed by social media/ media as I occasionally do. It was a breath of fresh air as well as a trial of determination.