My 12 Hours of Media-Deprivation... it was enlightening?

What was it like to maintain self control for twelve hours and ignore all my media devices... including the Kindle Fire my twin got me for Christmas that has been glued to my hands ever since, at first I did not know what to do with myself. I had to turn my phone, computer, and kindle off.

I was lost, in all honesty. Trying to stay away from any type of media is extremely hard. I never entirely realized how much media is around and how much I use it. My Dad asked me why I wasn't texting or on my Kindle, I said it's for class. He laughed at me talking about how I wouldn't make it. I I hadn't decided on going to bed three hours early to get through it, I wouldn't have. 

The hardest media to avoid was my Kindle. Especially my FlipBoard app in which keeps me informed on all kinds of different things I like. Also, Spotify was very hard to resist. I love my music. Not being able to listen to some good old LA Dispute and Red City Radio was disheartening. I always have some type of music playing. It was fairly easy to stay away from television, considering the only show I watch is not on until the end of the month. 

The missing elements in which affected me most were things like not being able to check my email or update my online calendars. Being a very organized person it was difficult to have no access to what I had already planned for the day. Granted it was not very difficult to grab a pen and piece of paper to jot things down. For xmas my sister got a new TV, so I got her old one. I was able to have time to move things around in my room and get it ready for my Dad to paint it. That was really nice, but boring considering I couldn't listen to music, hahaa. Jordan, my twin, went for a walk with me and we talked about the upcoming semester in school and work. Being able to step away from the electronic devices Jordan and I are always glued to was nice. We didn't take our phones or ipods, we actually just talked. After that we decided to do this once a day for an hour. We will go for an hour long walk without anything electronic. It's pretty awesome. :) 

The good things about media are that some times they are entertaining. TV and music are two things in which virtually everyone uses every day. The internet is addicting which in some ways can be bad. Right now I really like playing Diablo 3 so not being able to play it really sucked but I realized there were more important things to do. It is easy to demonize all media as bad. Yes the internet can cause lots of problems because people do not always use it properly. I certainly over indulge in media. I grew up in a world that was quickly becoming digital. It is hard to deprive myself of these things now, having watched DVDs on the first DVD player we ever got. Or watching my older syblings play video games like Resident Evil. Hell, I start my day off by checking my email and playing music to wake myself up. Without any media, it would be a weird world for me.