media month

(August 2012)

February 4th begins Media Month as part of the 7 project I am participating in with a group of women, based on one of Jen Hatmaker's books.  The idea behind this month is to eliminate seven sources of media from my life.  Since we all have different degrees and forms of media use, this month will be different for each of us.

As we reviewed our media use together in order to choose our seven to "fast" from, I started to get a little twitchy just thinking of how much I consume.  Here is a non-exhaustive list I wrote up at our group's meeting last night:

• facebook
• twitter
• tv (Netflix and cable)
• myfitnesspal app
• blog reading
• blogging
• pinterest
• instagram
• radio
• kindle books
• pandora
• email (work and personal)
• google groups
• reading news stories or personal interest articles online

It's amazing how connected into media sources I seem to be, and perhaps not surprising at the same time how fractured my mind and day can feel.  In any given day I am checking twitter, Instagram (and posting to Instagram), checking email, checking the weather on my iPhone, putting Blythe in front of a PBS Kids show in the morning so that I can shower alone, inputting my food intake into myfitnesspal....and that's just before I leave for work or we head out for an activity in the morning.

It's no wonder I still have a list of books I would love to read, and only one completed so far this year.  This month's project seems to be in perfect timing with the changes I would like to make in how I go about my day.

In what we would consider a fairly bold move in our household, Ryan and I decided to move our tv out of the living room and back down to the basement last weekend.  We may be cutting cable in the near future and relying on Netflix and Amazon Prime.  We both have Kindles with video streaming capability, so we certainly won't be suffering if we end up wanting to maintain the status quo.  We recently realized, though, that having a tv in our living room isn't necessary - the majority of our tv viewing occurs after Blythe's bedtime anyway, and even less when the weather is nice and we're all outside.  And yes, I am a slow learner.  Many of you might have realized these things (both about the unnecessary television and my slow learner status) long ago.

So, it's a bold new world in our household, and I'm excited.  Of course, the tv issue is just one of the many media sources I access each day, and I'm hoping this month will be a catalyst for me to reorder my life and my priorities as they relate to all of those things listed above.  I want to fill my time with less obsessive checking of facebook and Instagram and wondering what cool pins I've missed on Pinterest, and fill it with more adventures (perhaps indoors, as it's 10 degrees outside currently) and creativity and uninterrupted time.  Check back a bit later when Blythe and I have fully exhausted every project, toy, and book in the house as to whether I'm still so enthusiastic.  But for now, I will take the excitement.