So I Went on a Media Fast

Yes, I did make a meme for class. I freaking love college.

For my mass media class, we had to do a 24-hour media fast. We couldn't look at any sort of mass media. That includes movies, TV shows, video games, recorded music, books, BRANDED MERCHANDISE. Nothing. I had to write a brief essay about it as well as make a meme and give a speech on said meme. I won't be giving the speech until classes get un-canceled, but I think I'll share my media fast experience with you.

The journal:

I went on my media fast from noon on Tuesday the 2nd to noon on Wednesday the 3rd. One of the things I learned about my media consumption habits is that I spend a lot of my day consuming media. In the days leading up to the fast, I began to worry because I thought I would go stir-crazy. I couldn’t watch YouTube or Hulu. I couldn’t play video games. I couldn’t even read for leisure, which is what I’d probably do if I had to go 24 hours without screens. Luckily, I was able to entertain myself with schoolwork by going on a media binge on Tuesday morning by playing both of my “Animal Crossing” games, watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager (which I’ve been doing at night), and listening to music until noon when I scheduled my fast to start and saving all my schoolwork for the afternoon so that I’d have something to do. I’d most want people to know that I’m a heavy watcher. I spend multiple hours a day watching YouTube, I have a Hulu account that I watch TV shows on, and my main platform for listening to music when I’m not on my computer is YouTube.

It's not possible to avoid all media because at certain points, you’ll be exposed to media you don’t have control over, but it is possible to avoid the media you can control. During the fast, I kept myself from watching YouTube or Hulu, playing Animal Crossing, or listening to music. The music part was hard because I need music to focus while reading for school. One reading assignment that would normally take me half an hour took twice as long. However, I could not keep myself from hearing the music in Mabee. I made my trips as quick as possible, going in, getting my food, and getting out. I’d try to hum something else, but I didn’t have the multitasking ability for it, especially when “Tainted Love” came on. Eating by myself in my room felt kind of bleak, with no music or even other people. I also wore branded clothing that I forgot counted as media until after I started the fast. For those, I just had to look away.

Like I mentioned before, the hardest media to avoid was definitely the music in Mabee Hall. I couldn’t help but tune in on it in the few minutes I was there. Eventually, when it got to be lunch on Wednesday, I decided to end my fast at 11:55 instead of noon since I didn’t want to be having lunch outside just because five minutes of it was before noon, and if that breaks the rules of the fast, then so be it. I also couldn’t avoid media that I had personally produced. When I was done with all my schoolwork on Tuesday, I decided to watch a few videos that I had made for my YouTube channel before bed. I also wrote like I usually do since that doesn’t involve intaking mass media, but I also publish my stories, so it might count as mass media, especially since I also read a lot of my own work during the fast, including works based on video games. Again, if that counts as media, then it’s too late to change anything.

And now, the self-incriminating speech:

I’m pretty proud of the meme I made for this class. I had no problem familiarizing myself with memes. I watch meme compilations on YouTube every night. It took me all of fifteen minutes to come up with the right meme to describe my media fast experience. But enough boasting about my meme knowledge. Let’s get to this little beauty.

I don’t think I need to describe it to you. You can already see it. I personally think it’s pretty clever because in the original sense, D.W. is literally unable to read. She’s too young. What I’ve done is change the meaning in the sense that I was not allowed to read because that would break my media fast. I also might have just admitted through this meme that I might have cheated depending on what the definition of cheating is.

Yes, I did watch a few of my own videos and also read one of my scripts while transferring it from Google Docs to Wattpad. I also did plenty or writing to entertain myself. When the media fast was being assigned and everyone was asking questions on what qualified as media, Dr. Reyes finally said just to use our better judgement, so I did. I mean, the definition of mass media is media that is transmitted from one to many, right? I might have been looking at videos that I had uploaded to YouTube and stories that I intended to publish online for people to see, but if I’m the one looking at them, in that moment, it’s just one to one transmission. Don’t worry. I watched the videos in the Photos app on my phone and stayed confined to the My Stories page on Wattpad, so I wasn’t exposed to anyone else’s content. I also decided writing was okay because that’s creating something, not absorbing something.

I am okay, right?