Oh, the media fast. Definitely not as big of a success as regular fasting has been for me. I began at noon on Friday with the intention of going pretty hard core for 24 hours. No phone, internet, laptop, TV until noon on Saturday. And then I cracked...
Friday, approximately 1:00 pm: I work in the Cougareat so I knew that I would have a little bit of technology interaction. The radio would be playing in the kitchen, I would work with the cash registers, I would have a walkie-talkie, I would need to write an email to management. But I could handle all that. No big deal. Then I get stranded while making a delivery. Necessary phone call #1 for someone to come pick me up. I wasn't bummed out because it was for work and it made me really happy to have a phone.
Friday, 5:15 pm: I get off work and need to meet my friend. I was running late so I was hoping that she could grab my car and meet me somewhere. I grabbed for my phone to call her when I remembered that I wasn't supposed to. Oh well, I would just have to continue to be late.
Friday, 5:30 pm: I'm running late and need to text my sister and tell her I was going to be late taking her to a concert that evening. I decided that she would just come to that conclusion when I didn't arrive to pick her up on time.
Friday, 7:30 pm: I'm trying to find where the concert is with my spatially challenged self and sister. It was at the U and I am super not familiar with their campus. Once we finally got around to where the U is, we had no idea where the concert would actually be taking place. Necessary phone call #2 to call my friend at the concert and try to figure out where to go and where to park. This turned out to be pointless because she was close to the front and a speaker so she couldn't even hear me.
Friday, 8:00 pm: My mom texts me and without thinking I flip my phone open to read the text. Oops. Unnecessary text reading #1. I told my sister that she would have to text her back for me.
Commence concert enjoyment. I'm not listening to the music on an electronic device, so I decide that it's acceptable.
Friday, 10:12 pm: My friend calls to see if we want to meet up with them at Denny's. I knew that if I didn't answer she would think that we were blowing them off so I answered and made it snappy. Thus, slightly necessary phone call #3.
Friday, 11:16 pm: Arrive home and in my tired state, reach for my laptop to check my email. After doing so I realized that I definitely wasn't supposed to do that and instead of wrapping it up, I decide that I'm already using it so why not check Facebook too. Judgment error #1.
Saturday, 11:36 am: Receive a text from an old friend. Once again, to avoid hard feelings I decide that it would be better to bend the rules than to wait too long. Unnecessary text reading #2.
Saturday, 12:01 pm: Give a sigh of relief.
More than anything, this experiment showed me just how often I use my gadgets and how dependent I am on them. Even when I was using them when I shouldn't have been, I was very aware of the fact that I was using them and for how long. I definitely found some ways that I could cut back and some ways that I actually don't abuse all of this technology.
Friday, approximately 1:00 pm: I work in the Cougareat so I knew that I would have a little bit of technology interaction. The radio would be playing in the kitchen, I would work with the cash registers, I would have a walkie-talkie, I would need to write an email to management. But I could handle all that. No big deal. Then I get stranded while making a delivery. Necessary phone call #1 for someone to come pick me up. I wasn't bummed out because it was for work and it made me really happy to have a phone.
Friday, 5:15 pm: I get off work and need to meet my friend. I was running late so I was hoping that she could grab my car and meet me somewhere. I grabbed for my phone to call her when I remembered that I wasn't supposed to. Oh well, I would just have to continue to be late.
Friday, 5:30 pm: I'm running late and need to text my sister and tell her I was going to be late taking her to a concert that evening. I decided that she would just come to that conclusion when I didn't arrive to pick her up on time.
Friday, 7:30 pm: I'm trying to find where the concert is with my spatially challenged self and sister. It was at the U and I am super not familiar with their campus. Once we finally got around to where the U is, we had no idea where the concert would actually be taking place. Necessary phone call #2 to call my friend at the concert and try to figure out where to go and where to park. This turned out to be pointless because she was close to the front and a speaker so she couldn't even hear me.
Friday, 8:00 pm: My mom texts me and without thinking I flip my phone open to read the text. Oops. Unnecessary text reading #1. I told my sister that she would have to text her back for me.
Commence concert enjoyment. I'm not listening to the music on an electronic device, so I decide that it's acceptable.
Friday, 10:12 pm: My friend calls to see if we want to meet up with them at Denny's. I knew that if I didn't answer she would think that we were blowing them off so I answered and made it snappy. Thus, slightly necessary phone call #3.
Friday, 11:16 pm: Arrive home and in my tired state, reach for my laptop to check my email. After doing so I realized that I definitely wasn't supposed to do that and instead of wrapping it up, I decide that I'm already using it so why not check Facebook too. Judgment error #1.
Saturday, 11:36 am: Receive a text from an old friend. Once again, to avoid hard feelings I decide that it would be better to bend the rules than to wait too long. Unnecessary text reading #2.
Saturday, 12:01 pm: Give a sigh of relief.
More than anything, this experiment showed me just how often I use my gadgets and how dependent I am on them. Even when I was using them when I shouldn't have been, I was very aware of the fact that I was using them and for how long. I definitely found some ways that I could cut back and some ways that I actually don't abuse all of this technology.
hahaha, my media fast went the same way...except I put off starting it because I really wanted to try and not use anything, but I couldn't ever start because I kept thinking of reasons why I needed to use my phone, my computer, my books...etc. I mean goodness, I even watched church on TV yesterday.
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