I'm currently taking a required course called "Intro to Communication Media". I have, just a few minutes ago, been made aware of our final assignment for the class: One Week Without Media.

The specifics:

1. Beginning at 4 p.m. Monday, April 21, spend one entire week without any media. The media fast ends at 3:59 p.m. Monday, April 28.
You are to consume NO media, except
* reading textbooks/library books for your courses,
* using your computer only to type assignments or research assignments,
* send email only to family/friends who are not within walking or short driving distance,
* and call only to family or friends that are not within walking or short driving distance
(if they are close enough, go see them in person and talk to them instead)

2. This “media fast” means that you will
* not watch any video content on television, CD-ROM, DVD, VHS tape, Internet, etc.
* not listen to any music or talk on radio, CD, cassette, MP3 player, MP3 computer, etc.
* not surf the Internet, use IM, “talk” in chat rooms, play computer games, etc.
* not read or look at newspaper, magazines, books, pamphlets, or anything in print

3. This “media fast” means that you will
* move to another room when your roomates/friends/family are watching, viewing, listening any type of media content
* actively avoid situations where media consumption is the centerpiece. For example, an invitation to watch a sporting event on television with friends.

4. Keep a very detailed journal of your experiences. Log the date, day, time and location of your entries. Describe your experiences. Compare your activities with what you usually do when you are not participating in a media fast.

Considering I'm a Motion Picture major, as well as in the middle of a book for my literature class, I'm interested to see how this is going to work. I may end up posting highlights of the journal on my blog- after the fast is over, of course- 'cause I'm a big fan of irony.

The media fast ends at 3:59 p.m. Monday, April 28.

The media fast ends at 3:59 p.m. Monday, April 28.

That day, I'll actually be ending the fast hours earlier (blowing my load prematurely, if you will), as my morning Screenwriting class always watches film clips as a matter of course.

at 4 p.m. Monday, April 21, spend one entire week without any media. The media fast ends at 3:59 p.m. Monday, April 28.

 But that's right in the middle of the NHL playoffs.

As a show of support I have decided to go through that week without otitis media.

But what for? Everybody understands the importance of mass media in modern life.It is the same as living 1 week without electricity or water at home. This part about "not to listen any music using..."seems specially difficult for me

It's pretty much the college course equivalent of your mom saying "Get off that damn computer and go outside!" Except we have to write a paper about it.

And yes, a week without music will be the most difficult task of all.

So, fast starts tomorrow at 4. If I don't go on here in the morning, I bid you adieu, Gazette. See you in one week.

I'd totally do it with you in a show of solidarity, but half my job requires me to be in contact with media in some form or another. So. Erm. yeah. Sorry. But hey! Once I'm laid off, I can TOTALLY pull this off! :P

Technically every time I go camping is a mass media fast. The only thing I take with me is a fresh Moleskine for writing. Though I do admit that sometimes a sudoku book will find its way into my bag, but I usually burn through those in a day or two. So. Yeah.

I literally slept with my Blackberry last night, as someone decided the weekend would be a good time to do a deal.  Maybe a media fast would be a nice change of pace.

Here's the message from my professor that prefaced the assignment:

This is an exercise that has been completed by HUNDREDS of students in this course both for me and for Dr. Robert Dardenne in Florida -- (as per his journal article: Dardenne, R. (1994) Student musings on life without mass media: Antidote for silence, boredom, and thinking. Journalism & Mass Communication Editor, 72-79).

Neither Dardenne nor Lee [my prof] have had any student fatalities to date. This will not kill you, though you might feel like it will. Go outside, for heaven's sake, it's Springtime in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Talk to other persons live, in person...what a novel idea! Also, if you want to vent about it, spend a season of catharsis writing in your journal, blaming Dardenne and Lee for your misfortune and explaining what media you miss...and why.

This is an important assignment. I am quite serious about this. I did have a student a couple of years ago who did NOT participate in the fast, then created an obviously fabricated journal. I warn you: Do NOT try this. He earned a D for the course.

I'm interested to see what my other profs think about the Fast when I tell them about it.

I sorta wish that one of my communications/media professiors had thought of this when I was working on my journalism degree back in the day. Granted I would consider myself more jacked-in to mass media these days than I was back then, and I'm sure being a journalism student and avoiding mass media for a week would have been the scholastic equivalent of committing seppuku. But it would have still been an interesting experiement to take part in for a course. My Intro to Communications course was a lot less interesting, though I did do a really cool presentation for my final that involved Star Trek. :) (it was actually a lot more "intellectual" than it sounds. My thesis was that not all shows are mindless entertainment and could indeed be used for educational purposes; I used the scifi-tech genre as the basis for my argument)