(Speaking of books, I highly recommend the gossipy and addictive Game Change, an insider account of the ’08 election campaigns.  I’m now digging into Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget.)

My life has changed much more than I thought it would. My mind is more peaceful, I have a more nutritious media diet and my body appreciates spending less time hunched in front of a laptop. We’ll see if I slip back into old habits, but for the foreseeable future my medium of choice is words on paper.

Alright, that’s it’s for that topic for a while. I’m currently finishing a little paid video gig and working on a reinvention of the Goodie Bag style. Stay tuned for more on these.

Anyway, I’m intact. The Slow Media Diet wasn’t torture and though I bent and stretched the rules here and there, I mostly stuck to the plan. I never touched RSS feeds, barely looked at the web and emailing was kept to a minimum.

Here’s some immediate thoughts; I’ll expand on these on the weekend after I’ve had a bit of time to process.

• I doubt the web will ever regain its former stature in my life. I’ll certainly resume reading my favorite sites, but I’ll also be doing an aggressive pruning. My intellectual life has been richer and more fun without the web.
• I’ll probably unplug from Twitter. Dealing in teeny bits of info is just not for me. And besides, I don’t think I ever really got it.
• My mind can certainly veer out of control without the influence of fast media. Speed is in our culture and also might be an innate tendency.

So was the Slow Media Diet worth it? Absolutely. I feel refreshed and rebalanced just like I thought I would.

But if you’re considering undertaking this experiment for yourself… two weeks is probably plenty.

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

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

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.

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

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.