This month's Media Free Week was fairly easy for me. I was busy enough, and tired enough, that I welcomed the quiet of a media-free house. I had the opportunity to rest and think, plan and ponder. Here is a list of things I did during Media Free Week:
1. Cooked fresh food - taking advantage of the cucumbers delivered by my generous neighbors, I made a huge batch of tzatziki, which we shared with our other neighbor.
2. Finished craft project - I finished a bag I was making for a friend, knitting the bag and then felting it. Several hours were spent bending over the sink and washing machine, hand felting wool and shaping it. I relished the physicality of the work.
3. Went to the gym - I've been off my workouts for a few weeks, and MFW was a great opportunity to get back in the swing of working out regularly.
4. Slept 8 hours - I managed to get enough sleep every night, without feeling like staying up to watch a little news, or being all pumped up from whatever movie I had seen that night.
5. Read books - Ah, this is where is gets tricky. I managed to re-read 1.5 of my favorite books. Some would say that this is all good - reading is not on our no-media list, after all. Yet I read so much, so often, that it may be considered addictive. I think I will try to limit my reading next month. (I'm not even sure that I could take a full week off of reading!)
6. Connected with friends and family - I had dinner with my neighbor, arranged a couple of upcoming dinner dates, and went to brunch with family from out of town. It was very nice to be in the moment with them all.
7. Kept house - laundry, dishes, you name it. Plus I made some small yet meaningful progress in larger house projects. For example, with the help of a friend (who wanted to borrow a book in my basement), I went through about half of our boxes in the basement, labeling their contents. I also discovered that we really have a lot of stuff in boxes that we probably don't need - fodder for another project!
Looking back, I feel a little more in control of my life, and have set in motion some good projects and plans to stay connected to the people and goals that matter to me. Hopefully I will be able to keep this momentum going throughout the month.
So. my question to you is, what will YOU do with a Media Free Week?
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Wired but not Web 2.0?
I saw this article in a classmate's blog. It has profiles of new media users. I guess I'm more of a "Lackluster Veteran" than anything else.
MFW September 2007
Alright, so here's how my Media Free Week (MFW) went for September 2007.
I recall reading the following media without noticing that I was starting to do it:
1. I picked up a copy of PC Gamer at Borders where I was getting a cup of coffee after work and I started reading some very encouraging reviews about BioShock, Crysis, and if I am not mistaken, Far Cry 2. When I realized what I was doing, I wiped the [ahem] sweat from my brow and went home.
2. I reflexively stopped at the magazine rack that has recently sprung up at the grocery store during its recent remodel. I thumbed through pretty commercial outdoor spaces furnishings and goo-gahs magazine and realized that I had in fact been drawn before to the exact same magazine in the past. Sheepishly I put it down and went back to shopping.
3. I have been tasked with keeping up with some serious advertising, media, and gadget online websites for a new grad school class on new media. My assignment is to watch a long list of sites, and at least scan the headlines every week. I am not sure how to adjust my MFW strategy in light of the class. It's like being in recovery and taking a wine-tasting class. On the whole I feel like it was a good week off from most external media.
A quick look at headlines suggests that I haven't missed much in a slow news week. My wife and I had a funny moment when we check the weather online and noticed that a tropical storm was passing close by our shore tomorrow. Ha!
On another level, I was up till 2 am every night except one this week, mostly working on school -- much of it on my own media projects. Self-created media isn't really something that I feel should be discouraged, but who knows, maybe it's the next thing to be curtailed.
I recall reading the following media without noticing that I was starting to do it:
1. I picked up a copy of PC Gamer at Borders where I was getting a cup of coffee after work and I started reading some very encouraging reviews about BioShock, Crysis, and if I am not mistaken, Far Cry 2. When I realized what I was doing, I wiped the [ahem] sweat from my brow and went home.
2. I reflexively stopped at the magazine rack that has recently sprung up at the grocery store during its recent remodel. I thumbed through pretty commercial outdoor spaces furnishings and goo-gahs magazine and realized that I had in fact been drawn before to the exact same magazine in the past. Sheepishly I put it down and went back to shopping.
3. I have been tasked with keeping up with some serious advertising, media, and gadget online websites for a new grad school class on new media. My assignment is to watch a long list of sites, and at least scan the headlines every week. I am not sure how to adjust my MFW strategy in light of the class. It's like being in recovery and taking a wine-tasting class. On the whole I feel like it was a good week off from most external media.
A quick look at headlines suggests that I haven't missed much in a slow news week. My wife and I had a funny moment when we check the weather online and noticed that a tropical storm was passing close by our shore tomorrow. Ha!
On another level, I was up till 2 am every night except one this week, mostly working on school -- much of it on my own media projects. Self-created media isn't really something that I feel should be discouraged, but who knows, maybe it's the next thing to be curtailed.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Media Free Week - the Beginning
Media Free Week began for me on February 14, 2003. Since we first were dating, my (then) boyfriend and I have always traveled on Valentine’s/President’s Day Weekend, usually somewhere close by, but far enough away to get a break from the routine. It was incredibly cold, the forecast called for a major snowstorm the following week, and we were determined to get our vacation in before it struck.
On the road, we had the time to have a long conversation. We were both concerned that we were not spending as much “quality time” together as we used to. I was upset that we didn’t go out as much, or see our friends as much, as we used to. He felt like I was too busy, and that I never made time to just spend with him. It sounds pretty analytical, but quickly came to a point:
“I come home and you are watching TV, so I go upstairs and play video games.”
“ I watch TV because I know you will go upstairs to play video games.”
So yes, we work too much, yes, we are “busy” people, but really, it came down to two little boxes sucking up all our free time. And while there were some really great shows on then (Buffy, 24, Pioneer House), I had to admit that I was watching a lot of crap, too. And I would truly sit in front of the TV for 4 hours a night, taking breaks to cook dinner, or while knitting and paying bills. But I kept the box on – the whole night. My boyfriend (now husband) could argue that he was “doing” something by playing a video game, but from my perspective it made him even less available – he couldn’t look away from the screen for a second. At least I had commercials.
We also felt overwhelmed by the news media. We had just been through the media blitz surrounding the Presidential Election, September 11th, and the invasion of Afghanistan. And then there was the DC Sniper Shootings – well-documented, yet factually flawed. We had felt the powerlessness of ourselves as individuals watching our own military actions, and the frustration of discovering news we relied upon to protect our community (remember looking out for a “white van?”) was completely wrong. We needed to focus on our own community, and the things that we could control.
We got inspired then. We asked ourselves – “What would happen if we took a media fast for a whole week?” It sounded easy. We spent the rest of the trip discussing what constituted media, and agreed we would not: watch TV, listen to the radio, surf the internet, or play video games. We would spend the evenings and weekends together. It made sense to fast Monday through Sunday, so we could build up to the weekend, which would surely be more difficult. We agreed to institute MEDIA FREE WEEK the first week of March.2003.
That happened to be the week that the U.S. invaded Iraq. I sat at coffee with a friend, listening to her fear and anger. I cared, but I also knew that there was nothing I could do in the moment that would change anything. I drove to work in silence, and I was able to focus more clearly on my day – not needing to check the headlines online, or catch a little bit of NPR at lunchtime.
At home, I felt more creative. I had no pattern to follow for the evening. I cooked dinner with my boyfriend and we had a chance to talk about our day.
That was the first day of MEDIA FREE WEEK. It has now been 3.5 years or so, and we are still going strong. Some months it is easier than others, sometimes I forget and drive to work with the radio on the whole way. But when we do it right, when we stay focused on the here and now, I feel calmer and more focused for the rest of the month.
What will happen when YOU interrupt the pattern?
On the road, we had the time to have a long conversation. We were both concerned that we were not spending as much “quality time” together as we used to. I was upset that we didn’t go out as much, or see our friends as much, as we used to. He felt like I was too busy, and that I never made time to just spend with him. It sounds pretty analytical, but quickly came to a point:
“I come home and you are watching TV, so I go upstairs and play video games.”
“ I watch TV because I know you will go upstairs to play video games.”
So yes, we work too much, yes, we are “busy” people, but really, it came down to two little boxes sucking up all our free time. And while there were some really great shows on then (Buffy, 24, Pioneer House), I had to admit that I was watching a lot of crap, too. And I would truly sit in front of the TV for 4 hours a night, taking breaks to cook dinner, or while knitting and paying bills. But I kept the box on – the whole night. My boyfriend (now husband) could argue that he was “doing” something by playing a video game, but from my perspective it made him even less available – he couldn’t look away from the screen for a second. At least I had commercials.
We also felt overwhelmed by the news media. We had just been through the media blitz surrounding the Presidential Election, September 11th, and the invasion of Afghanistan. And then there was the DC Sniper Shootings – well-documented, yet factually flawed. We had felt the powerlessness of ourselves as individuals watching our own military actions, and the frustration of discovering news we relied upon to protect our community (remember looking out for a “white van?”) was completely wrong. We needed to focus on our own community, and the things that we could control.
We got inspired then. We asked ourselves – “What would happen if we took a media fast for a whole week?” It sounded easy. We spent the rest of the trip discussing what constituted media, and agreed we would not: watch TV, listen to the radio, surf the internet, or play video games. We would spend the evenings and weekends together. It made sense to fast Monday through Sunday, so we could build up to the weekend, which would surely be more difficult. We agreed to institute MEDIA FREE WEEK the first week of March.2003.
That happened to be the week that the U.S. invaded Iraq. I sat at coffee with a friend, listening to her fear and anger. I cared, but I also knew that there was nothing I could do in the moment that would change anything. I drove to work in silence, and I was able to focus more clearly on my day – not needing to check the headlines online, or catch a little bit of NPR at lunchtime.
At home, I felt more creative. I had no pattern to follow for the evening. I cooked dinner with my boyfriend and we had a chance to talk about our day.
That was the first day of MEDIA FREE WEEK. It has now been 3.5 years or so, and we are still going strong. Some months it is easier than others, sometimes I forget and drive to work with the radio on the whole way. But when we do it right, when we stay focused on the here and now, I feel calmer and more focused for the rest of the month.
What will happen when YOU interrupt the pattern?
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Media Free Week Launch
September 11th was a catalyst for changes in many people's lives. Among the effects in my own life, was a recognition of the power that the full spectrum of media had to affect my perception of the world and also my relative inability to control the stream of information coming from radio, TV and my coworkers, as well as from other media like internet news, bill-boards, outdoor newsfeeds, music, as well as more nuanced and subtle messages from things like in-game advertising, patriotic flyover spectacles, t-shirts, etc.
Like many people, my experiences of the momentous events of the day were established by the media coverage of it, starting with the reports of the unfolding events which I followed with peaked interest while driving to work. I recall joining my coworkers around a TV in the conference room to behold the towers in flames with huge columns of smoke pouring out.
But later that day after being sent home, watching the macabre horror of the TV and radio coverage, and not really sure what else to do, my [then] girlfriend and I took a walk through some marginal spaces in the park in our neighborhood. Emboldened by the fear of war, we ventured into areas of our neighborhood park which we would have otherwise been apprehensive to visit. And there, where the stream passes beneath each street we found a cavern adorned by thousands of beautiful cave drawings, revealing something of the other side of the world. This was something we would have probably otherwise missed for our whole lives, and yet which was there a few blocks from our house all along.
To the gurgling of the stream and the occasional sounds military aircraft flying sorties over Maryland, and to the most remarkable sound of all--the unreal silence of no domestic air travel, I began to reevaluate my perception of reality itself, contemplating--at least for a few moments--the inter-connectedness of the worlds we live in. And how what is seen on the surface is so often a bizarro-world mirror image when viewed from below. And I wondered, not entirely playfully, if the denizens of the park were preparing to take it all away.
You never turned around
In the weeks that followed, while we talked for many hours with our friends and family about current events, their meaning and consequence, I never spared myself TV news and NPR coverage. At one point about two weeks into it, we attempted to get some people to come over and just talk as a group about the September 11th attacks and our hopes and fears for the world, but there were no takers.
In the year or so that followed I made great use of internet news media and broadcast news media to try to understand what was happening in the world. I developed a great fatigue trying to make sense of it all and at the same time to preserve a sense of balance in the face of so much media whose agendas I felt I didn't agree with.
As it turns out, this year was the most commercially profitable year for the media industries in all history. Among the stories that captivated our attention and kept us raptly attached to the broadcast and print media were the "DC" Sniper, the Invasion of Afghanistan, and the lead-up to the Invasion of Iraq (including the infamous WMD arguments for the second US invasion of Iraq). This was also the period of time that I like to say terror was discovered by prime time dramas with the first season 24 (which we watched beginning to end).
Looking back on it I am glad that I followed those stories, but I also recall an intense mental exhaustion trying to keep up with it all as well as a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the world-view which was created and fed by an endless buffet of condensed information about grave things that I had little ability to control, change, or even begin to critically explore. What seemed the most out of place, was the zeal that even NPR (gasp!) effaced in trying to keep us "informed" with ["]stories["] that were really just rehashings and un-rehearsed updates-to-the-updates, but which conveyed no new information, and in many [most?] cases were designed to exploit my concern about the news, and to fan it further for the sake of the media production enterprise.
This time the bullet cold rocked ya
Blasted through ya head
I give a shout out to the living dead
It was thus, that my wife and I somehow came up with the idea of taking a week off of media consumption every month. We debated how to organize the time, as well as a set of ground-rules for what kinds of media to prohibit. The first few times we did it, we discovered a number of issues which led rapidly to a number of changes to the plan.
Among the first things that I noticed was that deprived of media distractions, the world was a dull place indeed. We instantaneously threw ourselves into other near-total distractions. Drinking was for me at the top of the list and soon I recognized that in order to appreciate a world free of media distractions, I would have to be sober to do it. [Ahem], at least while I was doing it. Another distraction-enhancing tactic which had to be neutralized was the desire to go shopping, as if purely for something to do. Through the trip to the big-box stores or the mall, we could attained the escapism, the "retail therapy", of being pandered to commercially, more directly from the retailer.
The evolution of rules and adjustments, Media Free Week (MFW), has long-since become for me a universal "good week" in our household. The first complete week of the month (Monday-Sunday), I invite myself to do all the stuff I am supposed to do as a friend, husband, home-owner, healthy person, etc. -- at least for one week a month. That is why my list of things I'm prohibited from doing for MFW includes some unlikely "media" indeed, and I'm OK with that.
Forbidden "Media" [for me] are:
TV
Radio
Video games
Magazines
Catalogs
Internet (except for [ahem] work and [ahem] school)
Entertainment Shopping (Best Buy, CompUSA, the mall, etc.)
Non-work computer fussing (I'm in IT so this can include anything from installing, updating and patching software, file management, breaking and fixing the computer, defragging the hard drive, reconfiguring software and hardware, etc.)
Candy
Ice-cream
Sugary Baked Goods (cookies, cakes, pie, etc.)
News feed headlines
So far, I observe reasonable-use exclusions for:
Books (I'm not much of a reader)
DVD movie screening
Cinema screening
Theatrical Performance
Email
CD Audio and MP3s
Internet for work
Computer fussing for work
The critical distinction for me is between streams of media which you don't control as a viewer/reader, where you don't know what's coming and which actually never really end, like radio, TV, entertainment shopping vs. on the other hand, something like a movie or a CD where you conceive of consuming the media text and then watch it through to its conclusion -- and then it's over.
-------------------------------
Now, we would like to invite you for your thoughts about and experiences of going "media free". So if you are interested in being a guest poster to initiate a thread, please contact us (mfweek AT gmail dot Com) and one of us will get back to you. Just remember, the topic of this blog is about what happens when we try to opt-out of media consumption. It's not really about criticism of the media per se, or even about whether the media are good or bad. We'll leave that to "the media"! ;)
Interrupt the Pattern
Like many people, my experiences of the momentous events of the day were established by the media coverage of it, starting with the reports of the unfolding events which I followed with peaked interest while driving to work. I recall joining my coworkers around a TV in the conference room to behold the towers in flames with huge columns of smoke pouring out.
But later that day after being sent home, watching the macabre horror of the TV and radio coverage, and not really sure what else to do, my [then] girlfriend and I took a walk through some marginal spaces in the park in our neighborhood. Emboldened by the fear of war, we ventured into areas of our neighborhood park which we would have otherwise been apprehensive to visit. And there, where the stream passes beneath each street we found a cavern adorned by thousands of beautiful cave drawings, revealing something of the other side of the world. This was something we would have probably otherwise missed for our whole lives, and yet which was there a few blocks from our house all along.
To the gurgling of the stream and the occasional sounds military aircraft flying sorties over Maryland, and to the most remarkable sound of all--the unreal silence of no domestic air travel, I began to reevaluate my perception of reality itself, contemplating--at least for a few moments--the inter-connectedness of the worlds we live in. And how what is seen on the surface is so often a bizarro-world mirror image when viewed from below. And I wondered, not entirely playfully, if the denizens of the park were preparing to take it all away.
You never turned around
to see the frowns
on the jugglers and the clowns
when they all did tricks for you
Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone", Highway 61 Revisited
In the weeks that followed, while we talked for many hours with our friends and family about current events, their meaning and consequence, I never spared myself TV news and NPR coverage. At one point about two weeks into it, we attempted to get some people to come over and just talk as a group about the September 11th attacks and our hopes and fears for the world, but there were no takers.
In the year or so that followed I made great use of internet news media and broadcast news media to try to understand what was happening in the world. I developed a great fatigue trying to make sense of it all and at the same time to preserve a sense of balance in the face of so much media whose agendas I felt I didn't agree with.
As it turns out, this year was the most commercially profitable year for the media industries in all history. Among the stories that captivated our attention and kept us raptly attached to the broadcast and print media were the "DC" Sniper, the Invasion of Afghanistan, and the lead-up to the Invasion of Iraq (including the infamous WMD arguments for the second US invasion of Iraq). This was also the period of time that I like to say terror was discovered by prime time dramas with the first season 24 (which we watched beginning to end).
Looking back on it I am glad that I followed those stories, but I also recall an intense mental exhaustion trying to keep up with it all as well as a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the world-view which was created and fed by an endless buffet of condensed information about grave things that I had little ability to control, change, or even begin to critically explore. What seemed the most out of place, was the zeal that even NPR (gasp!) effaced in trying to keep us "informed" with ["]stories["] that were really just rehashings and un-rehearsed updates-to-the-updates, but which conveyed no new information, and in many [most?] cases were designed to exploit my concern about the news, and to fan it further for the sake of the media production enterprise.
This time the bullet cold rocked ya
A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika
Nothin’ proper about ya propaganda
Fools follow rules when the set commands ya
Said it was blue
When ya blood was red
That’s how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head
Blasted through ya head
Blasted through ya head
I give a shout out to the living dead
Rage Against the Machine, "Bullet in the Head", Rage Against the Machine
It was thus, that my wife and I somehow came up with the idea of taking a week off of media consumption every month. We debated how to organize the time, as well as a set of ground-rules for what kinds of media to prohibit. The first few times we did it, we discovered a number of issues which led rapidly to a number of changes to the plan.
Among the first things that I noticed was that deprived of media distractions, the world was a dull place indeed. We instantaneously threw ourselves into other near-total distractions. Drinking was for me at the top of the list and soon I recognized that in order to appreciate a world free of media distractions, I would have to be sober to do it. [Ahem], at least while I was doing it. Another distraction-enhancing tactic which had to be neutralized was the desire to go shopping, as if purely for something to do. Through the trip to the big-box stores or the mall, we could attained the escapism, the "retail therapy", of being pandered to commercially, more directly from the retailer.
The evolution of rules and adjustments, Media Free Week (MFW), has long-since become for me a universal "good week" in our household. The first complete week of the month (Monday-Sunday), I invite myself to do all the stuff I am supposed to do as a friend, husband, home-owner, healthy person, etc. -- at least for one week a month. That is why my list of things I'm prohibited from doing for MFW includes some unlikely "media" indeed, and I'm OK with that.
Forbidden "Media" [for me] are:
TV
Radio
Video games
Magazines
Catalogs
Internet (except for [ahem] work and [ahem] school)
Entertainment Shopping (Best Buy, CompUSA, the mall, etc.)
Non-work computer fussing (I'm in IT so this can include anything from installing, updating and patching software, file management, breaking and fixing the computer, defragging the hard drive, reconfiguring software and hardware, etc.)
Candy
Ice-cream
Sugary Baked Goods (cookies, cakes, pie, etc.)
News feed headlines
So far, I observe reasonable-use exclusions for:
Books (I'm not much of a reader)
DVD movie screening
Cinema screening
Theatrical Performance
CD Audio and MP3s
Internet for work
Computer fussing for work
The critical distinction for me is between streams of media which you don't control as a viewer/reader, where you don't know what's coming and which actually never really end, like radio, TV, entertainment shopping vs. on the other hand, something like a movie or a CD where you conceive of consuming the media text and then watch it through to its conclusion -- and then it's over.
-------------------------------
Now, we would like to invite you for your thoughts about and experiences of going "media free". So if you are interested in being a guest poster to initiate a thread, please contact us (mfweek AT gmail dot Com) and one of us will get back to you. Just remember, the topic of this blog is about what happens when we try to opt-out of media consumption. It's not really about criticism of the media per se, or even about whether the media are good or bad. We'll leave that to "the media"! ;)
Interrupt the Pattern
See What Happens
