Since childhood, TV was always been something of comfort, and I'm certain there are many others that share this feeling. It can become the third (or the primary in some cases) parent when your real ones are busy dealing with grown-up things. We turn to it when we are bored. We leave it on when we are home alone or even when we leave our home alone. We learn to find solace in the "lives" of others when ours feel mundane or otherwise. We watch to take pride in our athletes, to relate to joy and pain, to stay informed with news, to keep up with trends, to learn, to see the world from the comfort of our home. But what are we really seeing? The media can be a great tool but the way it has been integrated into our lives, it is bleeding into our bloodstream and taking over our nervous system, just like a drug. We fiend it without even realizing.
Yesterday I challenged myself to taking away as much mindless media from my life as possible. I hid my remote and my headphones, I deleted the music off of my iPhone, I took iTunes off the dock of my MacBook, and I put post-its over the buttons on my TV. For the first time in years I want to be able to hear the world and hear my own thoughts. I want to be able to process my thoughts and and take action without getting distracted, because I realized a long time ago that, along with a heavy percentage of the population, I have A.D.D.
In my opinion, A.D.D. is not genetic. It is a symptom of media overload. The ability to harness your focus and form productive actions is something that comes with time, practice, and experience, yet at an early age we are ridden with commercials and media that take time away from such experiences and are formulated to accommodate everyone's message all at once. In turn, this creates a jumble of distractions. It's like the pictograms that I remember from my childhood that was made up of a jumble of patterns. When you stare at it long enough with unfocused eyes you can see the big picture. It's as if our lives are so overloaded with media that we become unfocused in our attempt to see the big picture.
What I'm trying to do is ween myself off the popular media drug; drain as much of it as I can from my bloodstream and see how I am effected. Will it improve my ability to focus? What will I hear and what new sounds will I discover? What songs pop into my head? How often will I attempt to turn on the TV?
In my first day of the challenge, I noticed that food and TV go hand in hand. With every meal, I had this intuition to reach for the remote. When my day stood still for a moment I would want to fill the void with TV. Travel and music however was not as big of a challenge yet, since I have taken up biking. I'm a newb with my bike to begin with and riding with music is not the safest choice so that had already been something I was getting used to for the last month anyway. On the other hand, even though we play music at work in the lobby which, is something out of my control for this challenge, I found myself tempted to play music from my phone when I was cleaning theaters.
I have noticed myself humming random tunes. Yesterday's favourite seemed to be "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" because I had sung it with my cousin's baby, Anita, the other day. As annoying as the song is, it would make me think of her each time so in the end it was still a positive thing.
Thoughts have become extraordinarily clearer and my ability to finish thoughts is becoming more frequent. I feel calmer and more at ease. I can hear the birds, the wind rustle through my blind, and the cars drive by my window. It's as refreshing as taking your first steps out of the house after spending the entire day cooped up indoors.
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