Day 1: So Far, So Good!

First day of media deprivation – honestly, it wasn’t super hard. I woke up to my phone ringing. It was my sister who is living in Germany. I talked a while with her. Later in the day, I got a phone call from a cousin in Wisconsin and talked with him for a little while. I don’t feel like that was breaking the rules. If it was a local friend or someone I could easily get together with and talk to, then I would not have used the phone. But I can’t just get together to hang out and chat with my sister or cousin since they are both over a thousand miles away.

I later worked on a power point presentation. I think the hardest part of this media deprivation project is the music part. While working on my laptop, songs would pop into my head. I would almost pull up my music player or YouTube to start listening to music, but would then sadly remember that I could not. Thankfully, I play the piano, and spending some time on the instrument (as well as singing to myself) helped satisfy the desire for music. :)

On the way home from a birthday party this evening, my little brothers turned on a movie in the van. I was sitting in the back so, of course, I could not avoid watching Pixar’s Monsters Inc. But I wasn’t too disappointed. ;)

If life was not so busy and school was not still going, I think it would be very interesting – and maybe even refreshing – to try a complete mass media blackout. No internet, television, phones, etc whatsoever. When I’ve been out camping before, I have done this, but it has not been in an everyday setting, which I’m sure would be much harder.

It is interesting what kind of hold these extra little things have on us. They have actually become a need to many. I do not think the concept of “needing” things that we don’t really need is anything new. Yes, nowadays we “need” texting, internet, music, and so forth. Even non media related things, such as microwaves, washing machines, and dishwashers have become a necessity. I can’t help but wonder what types of things people “needed” years ago? What did the older generation of those times see as overused and/or unnecessary? But I definitely think we take our communications now for granted. If I lived just a few decades ago, phone calls across the country would be very rare…out of the country, almost impossible (outrageous prices and such). And email would not have existed. I’m sure I would not have the same relationship with family as I am now privileged to have because of easy communication access.

These are just my thoughts for the day. :)

Keep up the fabulous work everyone else! And thanks for reading!

~Megan