The junior high youth group I help out with recently began a media fast. The general idea is to cut back on the noise in our lives by cutting out cell phones, television/movies, music, video games, and internet - not necessarily ALL of those things, but one or a combination, and all within reason. Obviously the internet is necessary for homework, cell phones for family, and so on. It's only been a week and a half, but wow! I usually listen to music all the time and now there is so much quiet... I had the most productive week of my life! This fast lasts a month and I'm really interested to see how I will feel at the end. Will I think differently? Although the point of this fast isn't about moral issues, I think I might view some things in a new light. I'm losing the desire to have so much noise all the time. Television has been amazingly easy to let go of! music, not so much, but I'm working on it...
The fast has also forced me to use my time in more productive ways. The biggest change I've noticed so far is that I fall asleep a LOT faster at night. My mind is so much less cluttered at the end of the day, and I have usually gotten so much work done that I am just ready to completely relax.
I think we all know, on some level, that we are surrounded by noise most of the time. Everywhere we go, there is music playing, people talking, lights flashing, images bombarding us from every side... but how would we change if there was less? It's an interesting question... I've been pondering it quite often in the last few days. I have debated both positive and negative, felt bored and productive... what do you think life would look like?
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5 comments:
I know a person who gets nervous when there is no noise on.
There is a long religious tradition of people trying to leave the world with all the noise and clutter behind by removing themselves from society in order to grow spiritually. With Christianity it started in the 300s. After Christianity became legalized, some Christians found that since they were no longer automatically excluded from society because of their religious affiliation, they needed to leave to better focus on God. So they started going into the desert to be alone with God and eventually monasteries were formed.
That is quite interesting. Personally, I live by music. There is a rare time when I am not listening to music or some noise. I could live without TV or the internet, but I could not imagine life without music. I'm tempted to try it.
It would be very interesting to see how people exzpress themselves without TV or music. There would be an abundance of art (especially all that fun absract stuff we talked about) and literature. People might talk more rather than cranking the music in the car. Families would get to know each other better playing games and actually eating dinner at the table rather than in front of the TV.... Oh the possibilities.
Although a lot of people do try to seperate themselves from the world for a variety of reasons, the idea is more along what Courtney was saying... what if we got together with people in person instead of chatting over facebook? what if we talked with eachother in the car instead of cranking the music? what would happen? It's not a moral issue, more of a social expirement. It's really challenged me to find other ways to communicate and be involved in the lives of people I love in more personal ways. Plus I get waaaaay more work done! Courtney, I always have music on too - that's definitely been tough - music has always played a huge role in my life... but, if you ever want to try it, I would really encourage you to - it's quite the expirience!
I have been trying this all day today. Normally if I am driving to work or school I am on the phone, even with the new laws, I just feel the need to talk. Today when I was driving to and from places I put the phone away and turned the music off. It was nice for a change. At work today I have done the same, usually I will have music playing, nothing loud but distracting none the less.I wrote a paper that would normally take me all night to write in less than an hour.
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