WNPR and Your Public Media contributor Heather Brandon has accepted our challenge to complete a media fast. She'll be abstaining from all media Monday, August 1 - Thursday, August 4 and will be interviewed, along with Tom Cooper, author of Fast Media, Media Fast: How to Clear Your Mind and Invigorate Your Life In an Age of Media Overload about her fast on the Thursday, August 4 edition of Where We Live. No internet surfing, no television, no video games. This is her diary.
Day Two
1:44 pm
I’m at the stage of this fast where I wonder what the heck I was thinking by agreeing to it. All I can focus on when I’m at home is the lack of connection I feel. I’ve been listening to Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, because it suits me well right now. It’s inspiring me to draw, so I’ll give that a try.
10:22 am
Lack of access to the web for browsing, and to social media for chatting, has made me more focused on Stuff I Need to Get Done. It’s also made me feel a little flat—maybe quieter internally, but sort of bored and unstimulated. I’ve decided the Internet is a drug and I am hooked.
Interesting note: I’m still getting work-related emails about what’s going on in Hartford with respect to government or public meetings. My urge is to share the information with others, which is one way I use Twitter. While not doing that, it feels as though I’m sitting on my hands and am not being of much use to anyone. Then it occurs to me that I can be useful in other ways right where I am, not necessarily online.
I’m definitely relying more on email to communicate with people very selectively. It’s only very selective because hardly anyone emails me. Those that have, thank you! And those that haven’t, send me an email.
By tomorrow I may be back to writing letters and postcards again.
