Major Kennedy
Professor Tucker
HMXP 102
Media Fasting
Essay #3

Fasting from social media or any type of media for a whole twenty four hours is pretty hard. During this time of pure meditation from the digital world was a good way for me to understand, why we need media and why it’s also not needed. Since I was born, I’ve always been surrounded by technology, even the earliest stages of the internet. Most of us today use social media, television, or even our phones to obtain news and information around us. Personally I couldn’t tell you the last time I read a newspaper to know what’s going on in my community. Media is making our lifestyles a microwavable generation where everything is quick and handed to us. Not knocking technology or social media because I feel like it’s much easier to get information in the palm of your hand. But one thing I notice about using too much technology is that we are slowly losing face to face communication skills. More people use texting as a main source of communication and I’ve seen my peers write essay papers like the way they text which isn’t a good trait to obtain. By doing this fasting from technology, I felt at peace for a while, felt like I didn’t have worry about people or the world. Sometimes we don’t even realize how stuck on our phones we be or even the fact that we check our phones even when no one has called or text us. Media is influencing us in our everyday lives, by commercials, reality shows, and even game shows. Realizing that it’s more to life than just watching television, being on social media, and just being a couch potato. It was kind of hard doing this, because of the fact that I’m always using technology twenty four seven. But doing this made me realize that, being one with yourself and letting go of the world sometimes is a good feeling. I notice that I had less stress, and I was always in a better mood because I guess I’m not overthinking or checking my phone. Also staying off Twitter for once and Snapchat, was a relief also because that’s really my source for news and information. So not having any form of technology, I worked out and played basketball with some friends to be active instead of sitting at home doing nothing. Being without my phone and also television, made me start thinking about my life really and what I want out of it. Most of the times while we stay busy on technology we tend to forget some of the important things out of life also. Studying became a little bit easier because it’s less distractions around you and it’s just you and yourself. This media fasting was more of meditation time to myself and just actually have time think on my own terms. Usually when my phone is on someone is either always texting me or calling me and it was good to finally just leave my phone alone for once and not have meaningless conversations with people. Not having technology really helped have time for myself but instead of texting my family or calling them I just prayed to God that they will be fine for twenty four hours. Constantly being distracted by technology is terrible for productivity in life period. This digital age is making us more impatient, so we choose to have short and meaningless conversations. Also I started to understand that there is something wrong with always being engaged in your phone. If people are tweeting while they driving, texting, or surfing the web while they are falling sleep is dangerous. The average American spend about 3 hours watching television every day and it’s not counting the time being online with social media. Free time without technology is a good health benefit also.
It’s a lot of people putting off making health changes, like not having time to cook for the family or they feel like they’re not obligated to the gym. I noticed my life slowed down by doing this fasting also, I didn’t even realize how much the stress from social media was in my life. The smartphones we use brings the stress home, so really we can never be off duty and it’s hard to find peace. When you get on social media there’s information on there. Social Media makes us feel like we have to always be on the know but really it’s keep us from doing important tasks, and it then it accumulate into a thousand more tasks that we haven’t completed. I became more engaged in people and actually spending time to understand other people instead of me always on my phone while talking to people.
Humans are not wired to obtain constant information throughout the day sometimes we need a break. I think it’s a good way to letting people know that, social media is controlling at times and that we cannot be brainwashed by this. Most of the time we are becoming less social able when we use texting or just by living our lives behind a screen. Social media has caused a lot of heart aches between relationships and families. Spending time with your family and enjoying the little things was a good reason to let go of the world. Family can always make you feel wanted and watching television you always promoting perfection and who has the nicest body. But really life is not getting caught up in the worldly things but living life to fullest and doing the things that you love to do. In conclusion this experience with going without technology for twenty four hours really opened my eyes. The most that I got out of this experience is that, never take your life for granted and miss the simple things out of life. We can get carried away in to the materialistic things and not consider the life that we living. Sometimes it’s good to get some time away from the world because the world can be stressful at times. Usually we are always checking our phones and seeing what’s new on social media but we can sometimes take a break from constant information and be one with ourselves for once.
Technology isn’t bad but it can produce you into someone depending on technology for everyday use. But I believe that I could do this fasting again because I got the chance to finally have time to myself and be conscious about what’s going on around me better. I noticed that being more sociable without being on your phone, betters your people skills because you can actually get to understand people and read more body language. I recommend this to people that feel stressed a lot of times and most of the time it’s technology that’s the cause.
In conclusion letting of technology go for once is a way to find alone time with you and the world. Society is using technology for everyday use, and forgetting the natural way to do things, before they had technology. This generation is called the microwave generation because everything is quick and handed to you. We have to remember what we did before phones and social media, become stress free by leaving your phone for a day at home and you will see a difference in your life.