Join us Sunday, January 24 & 31 from noon-1 p.m at Common Ground for a Media Unplug!
As much as the Internet has made our lives easier, let’s face it, there are moments we curse the day it was born. How many times a day do we really need to check e-mail, last night’s sports scores, or our favorite blog? At what point does checking the news go from keeping us informed to keeping us unconscious?
With this in mind, we’re asking for willing yogis to come together in solidarity to take a break from all media for one week — no television, Internet, newspapers or radio.
Here’s how it works. Because it’s always easier to sacrifice together, anyone who wants to can make a pledge to refrain from indulging in any media source for all but the most necessary of tasks. E-mails are important, especially for work. But even that can be done mindfully and with much less frequency. Let’s try and keep it to once an hour and only for work purposes. Any media use that falls outside the “vital” category is considered breaking the fast. You can pay your bills online, but you can’t check your stocks. Facebook? Off limits unless you rely on it for work or finding a babysitter.
At the end of the week, we’ll get together and discuss how we can mindfully and skillfully integrate our favorite media addictions back into our lives. After all, the Internet is here to stay; it’s asking the impossible to give it up entirely. But similar to going on retreat, it’s much easier to take a clean break for a while. Then we can take a more mindful approach to using media, being aware of its strong gravitational pull.
We’ll kick things off at Common Ground on Sunday, January 24 from noon-1 p.m. We’ll go over the rules, take questions and commiserate over the ways the Internet has driven us to distraction. Then we’ll take our pledge to remain media free (or as close to it as possible) for one whole week. We’ll reconvene the following Sunday-same time, same channel–and see how everyone did.
If for some reason you can’t make either of the meetings at Common Ground, feel free to support your fellow media fasters on your own.
In the words of Edward R. Murrow: Good night and good luck.
– Kevin Freidberg