Monday, July 18, 2011

Media Semi-Fast

Lately I've realized that a lot of my conversation with others is focused on media, i.e., we spent lots of time discussing favorite movies, songs, bands, videos, and quoting lines from movies or funny YouTube videos back and forth. Now how useful is that knowledge and conversation? How edifying or important is it?

So I've decided to do a semi-fast on media for this week (and maybe longer, who knows). With God's help, I will consciously strive to keep my conversations free from references and reliance on media, and I will also strive to avoid viewing visual media, except news videos and movies that I watch while working out. (I will still be listening to music, but I will probably tone down the amount of time I spend doing that as well)

I ask those of you who converse with me to remind me if I slip up this week - and to those who would like to join me, I say the more the merrier! Who's with me? :-)

Day One
I slipped up several times in conversation - I think this is going to be the hardest part :-P I only watched one YouTube video though - and it was during social time with friends who wanted to see it so it wasn't too bad ;-)

Day Two
I did much better in conversations - almost no slipups! I did watch a couple of videos - but they were product reviews for gear I'm thinking about buying so I didn't count them ;-) I'm really having to concentrate on it though - it's amazing how much of my life revolves around media of some kind! :-P

Day Three
Continuous improvement - fewer references in conversation and NO online videos! :-) I still have to work at the conversation part though.

Day Four
Continuing to improve! I'm now getting to the point where I don't have to concentrate as much and I can enjoy my less media-centric conversations and activities :-)

~Mac

5 comments:

Excelsior said...

This is an excellent thought-provoking post! I shall have a word-fast of my own- different from yours though, since I'm not a media kind of gal ;)

MacMeister said...

I'm glad you liked the post! I hope you have a good word-fast as well :-)

If you're not a media gal, more power to you! Media is nice in moderation but I'm afraid I often go way beyond moderation; it's very easy to let it take over your life :-P

Unknown said...

Great idea Mac! We've been trying to reduce our idle chat about movies, etc. in our family as well. It's not an easy thing to do - especially when we all love music and movies and YouTube.... : P God bless you with your efforts!

Steven said...

Way to discipline your mind, time, and speech Mac! How did the rest of the week go?

MacMeister said...

@Hattie: Yeah I know what you're talking about. Thanks for the encouragement!

@Steven: Thanks man! The week went pretty well. I would have to crack down really hard to eliminate all media from my lifestyle and conversations, but the partial fast helped I think. It taught me that I can actually do something like that for a week :lol: It made me search for other topics of conversation which improved the quality of my interactions. All in all, it was good - and I think I just might make it a permanent part of my lifestyle!