Thursday
Mar112010
Digital Fasting
Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 10:34PM
I used to think a lot as a kid. I would spend a huge portion of my day just inside my own world. Looking back, that was really the point in my life that I felt like I had the most potential. I felt like my brain was always working on something. Imagining, thinking, turning things over, effing the ineffable.
by RellyAB
I didn't really watch TV. We only got 3 channels and my mom wouldn't let us see anything more advanced than Care Bears until we were 12. No computer at that point either. No VCR. Just books, blocks and the outdoors.
by static416
My friends lived pretty far away. The closest was a 20 minute bike ride, and the rest were far enough to require a drive, which meant I didn't see them more than once every week or two. So I spent almost all of my time blissfully alone. Thinking and creating. I had no distractions then.
I have nothing but distractions now. I have infinite communication options and nothing to say.
by underminingme
There is so much coming into my head all the time that there is no time to think, process, or produce. I consume more new information every day than people 50 years ago would consume in a month and it's shutting me down creatively. 12 year old me would be a vegetable in this environment.
I don't blame the technology, I blame my own lack of self-control. I've been gorging myself at the all-you-can-eat info-buffet for too long and it's time for a diet.
by alancleaver_2000
So starting now, I'm backing off the junk. No consuming any digital content. No podcasts, no music, no blogs, no TV, no movies, no IM, no StumbleUpon, no pr0n, no Twitter, no radio other than CBC news on the hour. Only books, legitimate online academic journals, and the power of my imagination. Email and phone permitted, I'm not going off the grid.
Focus on creative production. Photography and writing. Research and thinking. Only blog posts, Flickr uploads, and real human interaction. No pointless browsing or passive reception of info-tainment.
For as long as I can go.
by RellyAB
I didn't really watch TV. We only got 3 channels and my mom wouldn't let us see anything more advanced than Care Bears until we were 12. No computer at that point either. No VCR. Just books, blocks and the outdoors.
by static416
My friends lived pretty far away. The closest was a 20 minute bike ride, and the rest were far enough to require a drive, which meant I didn't see them more than once every week or two. So I spent almost all of my time blissfully alone. Thinking and creating. I had no distractions then.
I have nothing but distractions now. I have infinite communication options and nothing to say.
by underminingme
There is so much coming into my head all the time that there is no time to think, process, or produce. I consume more new information every day than people 50 years ago would consume in a month and it's shutting me down creatively. 12 year old me would be a vegetable in this environment.
I don't blame the technology, I blame my own lack of self-control. I've been gorging myself at the all-you-can-eat info-buffet for too long and it's time for a diet.
by alancleaver_2000
So starting now, I'm backing off the junk. No consuming any digital content. No podcasts, no music, no blogs, no TV, no movies, no IM, no StumbleUpon, no pr0n, no Twitter, no radio other than CBC news on the hour. Only books, legitimate online academic journals, and the power of my imagination. Email and phone permitted, I'm not going off the grid.
Focus on creative production. Photography and writing. Research and thinking. Only blog posts, Flickr uploads, and real human interaction. No pointless browsing or passive reception of info-tainment.
For as long as I can go.
tagged creativity, digital fasting, eric, fasting, hacke, information overload, real life, writing in Rant
creativity, digital fasting, eric, fasting, hacke, information overload, real life, writing in Rant 
Reader Comments (1)
[...] is my distraction As many of you may have guessed, my experiment with Digital Fasting was relatively short lived. I lasted 5 days before I broke, but I learned a fair [...]