Goodie Bag

Slow Media Diet Day #24: Entering the home stretch

I enter the last week of the Slow Media Diet feeling balanced and refreshed. I’m pleased with the results of this project but I also feel the lessons have already been learned and my interest in sticking to the rules for this final week is waning.

Last week I learned that my frequent lapses into hyperactive thought aren’t just a product of my media habits. During stressful or fast-paced times, I’m just as likely to derail into a scattered state. This week I’ve fared better at reigning myself in. I’ve read more and even managed to clear my mind entirely for spans of twenty seconds or so. I know that doesn’t sound impressive, but try it.

I have done some web browsing here and there, but nothing amounting to more than a few minutes at a time. As I look back on my original guidelines, I think I’ve basically stuck to the spirit of this challenge. I’ve had countless small lapses and at times I set the rules aside to watch videos, but I don’t think that was a major problem to begin with.

I admit in advance I’ll be breaking the rules for Apple’s tablet unveiling on January 27th. I also watched the first episode of Caprica last night night with my wife, but I hated it so I don’t think that counts.

Books I’ll be reading next

You Are Not a Gadget, Jaron Lanier

Game Change, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann

Slow Media Diet Day #17: Limping past the midway point

Things fell apart a bit this week and I’m not sure that my lapses were the cause.

I’ve been working a lot for a couple weeks now. In many ways that’s made this challenge easier – I have little free time to kill — but I also have little energy left for anything but the most passive diversions. During these periods of end-of-the-day exhaustion, I started watching Philip Bloom’s video training and episodes of Mac Break Studio. I considered these fair game because they’re research for work I’m doing. But I soon found myself zoning out to the the Mac Break episodes, checking out a few other sorta related videos, and then watching an episode of a (very good) Monty Python documentary series. I got into that, thought ‘fuck it’ and watched all six episodes.

During alone times last week I often found one trivial interior dialogue would lead hyperlink-style to another and another and another. My mind was the most chaotic it’s been in quite some time and I don’t think watching videos before dozing off caused this.

Despite my lapses, I didn’t exactly go on a fast media binge. I didn’t touch my RSS feeds, emailing was minimal and I only did a little web surfing when research went astray. I think I’ve learned my problems with focus and neurotic thought cycles aren’t just the result of my immoderate fondness of fast media. I’ll explore this more in the next update.

In other news, I did an interview with the BBC about this project. My thanks to Jamilah Knowles.

Things I’m Reading

Good’s Slow Issue

The Attention Revolution, B. Alan Wallace

Slow Media Diet: Day #9

Well, this week was easy: I left for work at 6:50am every day and returned home around 9pm. I’m usually in bed by 11, so my day’s were pretty much accounted for.

I have to say, I’m feeling much, much better. Before this I frequently got headaches (probably eye strain) and even occasionally experienced mild nausea (probably motion sickness from my eyes continually darting around a screen for hours on end). Those symptoms are now gone. I’m also more clear-headed, more relaxed and less prone to spiraling internal monologues.

I did have my first lapse this week, however. One night when it was late and I was too revved up to sleep, I watched Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession to help me doze off. My first strike, but at least it was film, which I don’t find nearly as mind-scrambling as the net.

I’ve done a couple media interviews about this experiment and I’ll post links when those stories are up.

Slow Media Diet: Day #4

So far I can’t say The Slow Media Diet has been difficult, but that could be because I have such a backlog of books and podcasts I’d been ignoring in favor of videos and the web. Right now books and radio are refreshing, but I don’t think that will last. At some point I expect to get a serious itch to veg out with a movie.

Early observation: the days are seeming longer and more productive.

Things I’m Reading
The Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond
House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski
Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro
The Economist

Things I’m Listening to
RadioLab
AV Club Talk

The Slow Media Diet

Photo by Pierre Pouliquin

For the month of January I’m embarking on something I call The Slow Media Diet. In a nutshell, what I’m looking to do is to both reduce my media consumption and shift my tastes to longer forms. I’ll be doing this for all of January and then on February 1st (my birthday, coincidentally) I’ll probably have a little binge, and after that integrate whatever works into my life.

Here’s the rules.

DON’TS

• No web browsing (blogs, news, feeds, etc.)
• No video entertainment (TV, DVDs, YouTube, streaming, etc.)
• No online shopping
• No Twitter except to crosspost blog updates
• No outgoing texts (text replies are okay)

DO’S

• Anything on paper is okay.
• Movies at the theater are ok (in moderation); movies at home are not.
• Radio, music, audiobooks and audio podcasts are all okay.
• I can post daily to my blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
• The phone and online communications (voice or video chat) are okay.

REDUCE

• Minimize computer use
• Minimize multitasking
• Personal email will be handled once per day in 30 minutes or less.
• Internet use for work purposes is okay but will be kept to a minimum.

The distinction I’m making above isn’t so much about technology as perceived speed. RSS feeds are fast. Audio podcasts, although technically also feeds, are slow. I want to minimize technologies that cause my mind to race, daydream, or fly off on hyperlink-y tangents.

My intention here isn’t to be a zealot and follow these rules even when they make no sense, nor is to treat this like some kind of endurance stunt. When absolutely necessary I will break the rules and then return to them afterwards. This is an exercise, not a code.

I’ll be posting to this blog about my progress. (Yes, I see there’s some hypocrisy there, but again, I’m not trying to be a monk.) Feel free to join in and adjust the rules or duration as you see fit.