Media Fasting
59. I watched 59 tv series mini &…maxi in 2023 and 50 movies. Guess that should have rang an alarm about my media consumption habits. I’ve always been a media junkie. We’d go to visit a family friend or to an event at a bookshop with my mom when I was little and by the time I was out the door I would have read a book. As internet came to our lives, books started slowly losing ground to YouTube, social media and Netflix. I almost feel obliged to know every piece of news, every public debate and gossip and to have an opinion on any tv show or movie on air. I love going down the rabbit hole of wisdom, whether that’s “following” a new painting technique in a video where someone generously shares their knowledge (most recently islamic patterns and byzantine iconography) or “following” a professor unfolding the world of faith (I recommend Religion for Breakfast and Let’s Talk Religion ).
I like to have the comfort of a familiar distraction keeping me company while I work whether listening to my mother’s sewing machine, a playlist I’ve played over 500 times or a second screen featuring an predictable Turkish dizi without too much going on in terms of plot. However I’ve started to weight in whether my online distractions have started working against me and not for me.
The first measure I’ve taken is time blocking my social media apps. I’ve restricted my daily time spent to 5 min for Instagram, 5 minutes for Twitter, 5 minutes for Facebook and 20 minutes for TikTok - it’s the most fun! Now do I hit the snooze button (1 more min!) every now and then? Yes I do, but I’m way more conscious of the time I spend on social, so that’s a practice I highly recommend should you wish to better manage your time.
My new experiment is media fasting so absolutely no time spent on social, tv series, YouTube and Netflix. I’m debating as to whether I should include books in this, but for starters I have not. In order not to reinvent the wheel and make it easier to remember, I follow the weekly fasting tradition of Greek Orthodox Church, so fasting every Wednesday and Friday. I was inspired not only by my little success in time saving by restricting my social media, but also by the book “The Artist’s Way”. In Week Four: Recovering a Sense of Integrity the concept of Media Deprivation is introduced. It recommends a week of reading deprivation as for most artists, words work as tiny tranquillisers. Consuming content works as a band aid, feeding our need to connect with the creative world, but starving us from quiet time, necessary to connect with our own thoughts, feelings and to listen to our inner voice.
I’ve only gone through only one day of media fasting and no lie - it’s a tough one. Especially YouTube as it’s my go-to place for short gratification while also feeling I am spending some “useful” time that can offer more substantial information vs social media for instance. All in all it did pay off even for a day. I spent more time outdoors, I got a bit bored and came up with a new idea to try out in my art, I slept early (finally!) and I got updated information on my shampoos & shower gel ingredients (if you know you know :D ).
I will keep you posted on my progress and please do let me know if you follow any similar practice yourself. All tips are welcome!
