Sooooo, I probably shouldn’t have been replying to email and writing this comment while listening, eh? ;)

Excellent idea about the media diet. I certainly need one, does anyone else watch T.V. while doing Sudoku at the same time? (hey, was that the nerdiest thing I could say?) We could do a paper-media diet as well. I buy tons of books, magazines + subscriptions + print outs of webpages that might be interesting for later. If I decide to have only one kind of paper media for a week, you get more time and less clutter!

Something I run into when I try to find a new book, listen to an album in iTunes, or watch that John Doe backlog, is that my organization gremlin commandeers my head. So, on this media date,

Don’t fix the media while you consume it.

Don’t sort that bookshelf by author “really quick.” Don’t add genres to that playlist “just for a minute.” Don’t prune those .avi files. Let it go. You will organize later, during a “cleanup date,” or, possibly never. It’s not fair to the part of your brain that wants to read the New Yorker article on Sara Silverman to split time with the part that wants to cut the article out and put it in a folder. You’ll end up like a wacky sitcom episode, dashing from one part of the restaurant to another, and we all know that only ends in tears.

great idea….however, I listened to the cast while working, with the radio on….I think I kind of missed the point. :-)

I don’t think we have to act like monks all the time—I just like the idea of not always being led around by the inputs in my life. I listen to NPR while I write, surf the web while I watch TV, and as I say, I almost always walk around while I’m talking on the phone.

Like any good diet, this one helps you shed a little weight and learn to make better decisions; it’s not designed to change years-old patterns of your life in an hour or two. :)

Great tip for a media diet - read transcripts of podcasts. (Hint! Hint!)

Audio is a quite rich media, but that also means it takes a lot extra bandwidth. Text can be slurped in easily. (I really don’t get why everybody is podcasting these days. More production time, more consumption time. Granted, if I had a long commute, it might make sense…)

Can I get a link to the Greasemonkey script you plugged? I can’t seem to find it.

Can I get a link to the Greasemonkey script you plugged? I can’t seem to find it.

Here ya go: Want to keep surfing? Pay the Webolodeon

The interrupt driven lifestyle

Definition of the problem You are most likely familiar with those annoying interrupts. Remember when you are concentrating on a project and your phone starts ringing. Or when you are reading something important and an instant message window pops up….

One of the best things I did recently was to turn off the new-item-dock-indicator in NetNewsWire. It’s still running, still up to date, but it just removes the Pavlovian ding-ding telling me that the brain-candy jar has just been refilled.

And you know what? I often forget to check it.

I was also wondering what this “Greasemonkey” script was - thanks for the link.

I applaud the notion of a media diet, but I’m rather surprised that your “diet” doesn’t consist of a period during which there is no media input/output.

What would happen if you were to spend at least one solid (waking) hour per day without any media engagement whatsoever?

As you said above, nothing radically life-altering or ascetic. Just a brief hour. No?

I agree with Lao. I was recently doing my morning break walk with (as always) my ipod on. I walked by a guy playing a guitar downtown and he smiled at me. Then it hit me-I’m missing out on the real sounds!

Unfortunately, I’ve found it difficult to walk without my ipod drowning everything else out. Thanks to this inspiring podcast, I’m going to do it this week!

What would happen if you were to spend at least one solid (waking) hour per day without any media engagement whatsoever?

Heh. Mine’s called “meditation,” and though I don’t do it nearly as much as I’d like, it is, pound for pound, consistently the most useful and rewarding span of time in most any day I can work it in. And it is completely media free. :)

But just in general? I totally agree. I forget what my refrigerator, car tires, and the swing set at our little park sound like when they’re each drowned out by NPR all day.

Great tip.

And I thought I was the only one that sat around listening to “Murmur”. :-)

eleven gallows on your sleeve,

—Steve

I few years back I attended a talk by Douglas Rushkoff at which he advocated a weekly ‘sabbath’ for the secular crew.

For one day every week, (1) don’t buy anything, and (2) consume no media.

I have experimented with variations of this ever since, from this most ‘total sabbath’ to less stringent ones; for example, not buying anything but abstaining from electronic media (books okay, but no newspaper.)

I really think it’s good to start light, though, like with the examples Merlinn gives.

I used to do the ‘mindful phone call’ thing whilst having a long-distance romance back in 1998. Now, Sundays have become ‘reading in the park’ day for K and me. Does sunshine count as a second medium?

Much as I love music, I have never been able to simply sit and listen to an album. I will try.

[…] It makes you stop and think about the world you’ve created for yourself when you relate to this piece of advice (from 43folders): # The Media Date - set aside a few contiguous hours to consume just one piece or type of media — by itself. Read a book, watch a movie, or listen to your favorite record. Defy background noise by just focusing on that one thing for a while. # The Mindful Phonecall - Take 30 minutes to sit in a chair and talk to someone you love on the phone. No shopping, web surfing, or walking around allowed. Just you and them. […]

[…] Right on. Personally I need to slim down on my media input. I’m reading 20,000 RSS feeds, tryng to listen to every album ever made, and watching episodes of Voltron on the iPod. You know where it’s getting me? Nowhere. 43F Podcast: Goin’ on a Media Diet | 43 Folders […]

I agree with the philosophy. Just two weeks ago I suspended all my library requests for 90 days.

Being in a major metro area, I get to four different city and county libraries - each a separate system. In my ravenous appetite for books and audio media, I found myself stacking up a boxfull of materials, and only getting a cursory scan through them. While that’s great to decide if it is truly something you want to dig deeper and read more thoroughly, there’s a lot of stuff I never get to. Even after renewing items two times, and re-requesting them, and re-borrowing them … the cycle was a game, a distraction.

Plus, there’s all the unread books I own! Was this aspect covered in Barry Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice?”

Be Well!

I am not sure I am ready for a media diet. I am a pretty big media junkie. But the mindful phone call suggestion reminded me that today was my brother’s birthday! Thanks! He laughed when I told him how I was reminded and we had a very nice conversation. I hope I get some points for that since I will lose some for making the call while driving down to Ontario for the podcasting expo.

Chris from the Amateur Traveler Podcast