Reflection on the media fast

Last weekend I observed media fast where I came to learn the extent I depend on commercial sources to obtain information. These sources include newspapers, internet surfing, reading books, watching televisions and social networking. However, I never took time to examine the validity of the issues that are being broadcasted. I have a feeling that this occur to many people who rely on information from commercial sources and they are busy such that they do not get time to evaluate the quality of information from commercial sources. The purpose of this paper is to develop a reflection of media fast for a weekend without social media.

Media fast gave me an opportunity to reflect ob the extreme overdependence people have on digital technology and mass media. Media fast over the weekend also gave me a chance to identify how profoundly technology and media are connected in out lives. Media fasting is a difficult task; however it is an appropriate approach of developing self-reflection. A fast made me think hard regarding my choices. Media fast encourage self-analysis; it helped me understand some of the bad habits I had adopted. Media fast over the weekend helped me to remember the things I love about technology and media (Clarke et al, 2010.pp 21).

I really faced hard moment watching people and the world around without reading, no internet or radio. It gave me an opportunity to assess myself and think and feel for myself. It was a realization since I was able to learn of how much time I allocate to media. To ensure that I benefited from the weekend media fast, I had to write a reflection of the things I found challenging and why. The reflection also includes the things I enjoyed and the things I missed out. I was able to keep away from social media by visiting my friend where we went for a walk; we painted, drew and played a board game. We really had a lot of fun with my friend who gave me great company. I had a great deal to identify my media intake, where I came to realize I spend more time on facebook and reddit, but I dislike twitter. My hobbies revolve around gaming, thus I enjoyed my friend’s company where we played games and walked. I also love exploring and thus the walk was a great adventure.

On the other hand, I missed my friends on social networking sites because I usually find myself engaging with my facebook friend on a daily basis. The media fast also made me believe that other activities such as having a walk, painting and drawing can perform similar functions I always realize on social network sites and attain same outcomes. I realized I consume a lot of time on social media where I socialize with friends, game and have adequate fun. However, I realize I need to create time to have face-to-face talks with my friends instead of conversing through the social media (Clarke et al, 2010.pp 39). I also came to realize I should also seek other ways of obtaining information instead of relying on commercial sources. Media fast also helped me to realize that it is good to evaluate the quality of information I obtain from the internet and other commercial sources.

I realized that to realize the changes about my media use, I had to come up with an action plan. I had to reflect on the things I enjoyed, what I missed and the issues that I found challenging and why. This will help me to allocate time to my daily activities. This will help me to reduce the time I spent on social networking sites. I tried to stay without specific media in turns to understand the media I love most. I also had to examine the amount of time I spend on social media. Media fast helped me to understand that it I would cut off some forms of media effortlessly that I thought. I was able to achieve a lot without getting involved with media the whole weekend. Thus, I plan to use digital technology and mass media more considerately instead of going back to my old media habits.

In conclusion, media fast over the weekend greatly helped me to reflect on my habits regarding social media. I was able to know the form of media that I love most and the time I allocate to media. I faced challenges such as missing music, missing my social network sites friends among others. I was able to rethink about my media intake and the changes that I should make regarding use of media. In order to make changes in my media use, I had to develop an action plan. Media fast also enabled to cut off some forms of media that I thought could give me a challenge to abandon. However, media fast was a great challenge, but I came to learn that there are some activities that could substitute some forms of media. Lastly, media fast was very significant since I will be able to focus on digital technology and mass media more attentively rather than going back to the my old media habits.

Reference

Clarke, A., Canada, and Canada. Social media: 4. Ottawa: Library of Parliament, 2010. Print.