An experiment

[Hot Scalding Gayser]

I'm curious about something.

If I went a month, with no internet or media/books of ANY kind... and just had more social interaction with people in reality (of course we could talk about media/books but we couldn't watch them directly), and had basic food & water.... and just really ignored any media messages the best of my ability, I guess live more like an amish... a very simple, chaste life. (well I'd still have sex with people though)

How would that change me? Or wouldn't it do a damn thing at all?

I could still write btw, maybe my own ideas and my own true thoughts & feelings would come forth, and I'd be less brainwashed by the Zionists. Because I'd still be idealistic 'media-focused' in my brain, I just wouldn't have any energy feeding and trying to influence/change my ideas about something.

Or I'm thinking all too much about this, but it's worth a shot.

I'm afraid though really, I might attract a lot of opposition this way. The more presence I gain in reality, the meatspace, the more I seem to attract that which I do not want (far right-wing views and oppression)... but this contrast gives birth to my own dreams, like Esther said so hmmm. Like they see me going to more places, I get around, I build a name for myself- like everybody does, they see what I'm really about, naturally- there will be those that support me and those that try to estinguish me.... and those that try to blend me into the nameless voices.

Well, again we'll see where this takes me.

[calenwen]

I think it would certainly help you to see things in a different light, although I'm not sure that it would change anything.

So are you doing this? Starting when?

[iAnnAu]

B&D, you almost sound here like you're afraid of following through on such an experiment. It really shouldn't be any such big deal. One month - sure, why not? People take vows of silence or even fast for much longer than 30 days.

I think there's no telling beforehand what kind of change it would engender (no pun intended, my fellow queer). It would require that you break yourself of certain habits, but in the space created you could devote your energy toward new ways of looking at things.

I personally have gone on "media-fasts" and not really missed it ... in some cases, I was so busy with other things that it was less of a restriction that I placed upon myself than a limitation imposed by external circumstances ... in other cases - such as very shortly after March 20, 2003 - I was so depressed and cynical about what I was reading that instead of consciously turning toward media that wouldn't make me feel this way, I just up and eschewed it all for a long time. In the latter example, it did help me to focus more of my energy on interactions IRL.

Obviously, though, it hasn't taught me how to be moderate in time I do spend online ...