Doing A Media Fast
How much time per day do you spend consuming media? I’m talking about news, magazines, social media and websites. Has it increased with the pandemic? Is it doing you good? Or is it making you anxious and depressed?
A media fast can help us break the cycle that news has over us. At a time when we need to be focusing on personal circumstances, keeping up with the media can distract us, or even worse, derail us completely and offer us an unhealthy escape.
My Own Media Fast
My own media fast came after I read a book in 2007. I had been angry so much of the time, and I traced the causes down to my media consumption. I cut out watching the news, Stopped reading the newspaper, gave up listening to the news on the radio, stopped reading magazines that focused on the state of the world, and blocked my consumption of the web as my main form of entertainment.
The results were astonishing. I found I wasn’t angry when I arrived at work (because I hadn’t been listening to the news). I found that I was able do a deep dive on topics that interested me, taking time to find reputable sources of my own choosing, rather than what was being pushed at me through the various channels. I had restructured my intake to things that really mattered in my life, like professional development and I found myself calmer, more able to respond rather than react, and in a better frame of mind all around.
I further cut my media during my one and only year of teaching high school; my teaching mentor warned me on day one that the principal monitored our personal social media feeds and had formally reprimanded teachers for things he thought inappropriate. I gave up social media for that year, rather than try and play the guessing game of what would be inappropriate.
I will admit, it was hard. But I realized that I had gotten a significant amount of time back. I also realized that I felt better about my life and myself because I was no longer comparing mine to anyone else’s social-media-perfect life.
Why Do A Media Fast?
Right now we are in the middle of a global crisis, the likes of which none of us have seen before. We are supposed to be physically isolated from others, so we are relying on technology to keep us connected. Most of us are also trying to get news about what is going on. Not only do we want to know what is happening globally, but we want to know what is happening in our own country/state/city. We want to connect to family and friends who are not living in the same house. And so we turn to the media.
But this influx of information can have a really bad effect on our mental state. We read/watch/hear about the hundreds of people dying every day. We read/watch/hear about supposed cures, and the deaths of those who tried the cures. We read/watch/hear about people we know (or know of) who have been diagnosed with the virus. We read/watch/hear about the empty shelves in the grocery stores.
Everything that we are taking in is taking us down. And if you find yourself feeling less-than-hopeful or anxious about the situation, then you need to consider what you are taking in.
If you were eating something every day that made you feel like crap, would you continue doing it? No. Approach media from the same standpoint.
[IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are feeling hopeless, depressed or despairing, please contact a mental health professional. Depression is an illness that can be treated, but only if you seek help.]
Assessing Your Media Intake
If you decide to do a media fast, you need to first know what you are taking in.
I suggest you grab a piece of paper and start writing. List all instances of the following that you have accessed/used in the past two weeks:
- News programs, websites and apps
- Newspapers and magazines (paper or electronic)
- Other websites
- Social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram etc.)
- Podcasts
- Audio/electronic/print books
- Other apps that you regularly use
- Emails from various merchants, websites, etc.
- Phone calls, texts and emails from family and friends
Deciding What To Cut
Once you have the list of all of the information sources in your life, evaluate each one. Ask yourself:
- Is this source critical to what I do for a living?
- Is this source uplifting or a drag?
- Is this source providing me with positive actions?
- Is this source critical to keeping up with family from around the world without weighing me unduly?
- Is this source used for escape?
- Is this source inspiring me?
- Is this source helping me be a positive force in the world?
- Is this source giving me unbiased education?
If the source is not a positive influence in your life, either get rid of it or swap it for something else.
For instance, if I am watching a news program that is consistently all doom-and-gloom, I will stop watching it. I will tell the people around me that I have stopped watching the news, and to let me know if anything big happens. If a friend is posting less-than-helpful stuff on Facebook, switch over to using email to communicate.
There are always alternate ways to get the information you need without destroying your peace of mind in the process.
Secrets To Success
Since I have been doing this media fasting for over 10 years, I have learned a few things that make it more likely to succeed.
- Let people know. When I stopped watching the news, I let people know. There are a few people who will tell me when big things are going on in the world. And for those that try to catch my attention about celebrity gossip, I shrug and tell them I don’t bother keeping up with that stuff.
- Don’t give in. It will be very tempting to go back to these sites. Don’t give in or you will be sucked in. It’s very tempting to check out Facebook when someone asks you, “Did you see what I posted?” Don’t do it. Ask the person to tell you instead.
- Be prepared for withdrawal. I was surprised at how strongly I felt the pull of the media source I gave up. Particularly social media, which I now know is specifically engineered to give us dopamine hits (read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport* for a start on this topic)
- Use physical limiters. There are a lot of options out there for blocking yourself from apps and websites. Use them to help you. This can be on the phone, on the web, or on your computer. Let the tools help you.
Conclusion
Going on a media fast wasn’t easy, and I still have to re-evaluate my consumption at times. But the payoff has been great: I am less angry, and more positive than I was when I was taking in all that media.
Read on for my current list of media sources:
My Current Media Sources
- No news sites. I still don’t watch, listen or read the news unless someone points something out and tells me why it is important.
- The websites for both my daughter’s school district and the Governor’s School for the Arts. They are my source for what she needs to be aware of in order to complete her senior year in high school.
- My church’s Facebook feed. We have moved our Sunday services to Facebook Live. I access it through the web browser on my tablet.
- Reader’s Digest and two hobby magazines. These are the only magazines I receive these days, and I am choosy about what I read out of any of them. I like the light-heartedness of the humor of Reader’s Digest.
- Websites: I read all my websites through Feedly, saving articles of interest to Instagram. This way I avoid getting sucked into a rabbit hole of distraction, and I don’t have to deal with anything other than the article I am interested in. The websites I read from are primarily productivity, knitting, and programming.
- Podcasts: I listen to a few podcasts, mainly those by Aaron Mahnke (Cabinet of Curiosities, Unobscured, Noble Blood and Lore), the Irish and Celtic Music podcast, Optimal Living Daily and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. These are curated, and I don’t blindly download any of them, but look to see if I want to listen.
- Social Media: other than the church service, all social media is blog-related, and I do it on my tablet with strict time limits enforced.
- Books. I have removed the Kindle app from my phone. I hold myself to non-fiction on my tablet (timed) and then my Kindle Paperwhite. Yes, I could read a lot of escape fiction on the Kindle, but the interface glitches and (now) poor battery life make this less than desirable. 🙂
- Emails. Anything with COVID in it goes into the trash.
- Phone calls and texts. During my work hours, I don’t answer my phone, and I only glance at texts. Anyone who habitually calls or texts me with gloom and doom are gently turned in another direction.
