Guilty as Charged; Caught Red Handed.

In reading the elaborate introduction of Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman's son, Andrew Postman, I was intrigued by something he indirectly suggested; a media fast. For 24 hours, refrain from electronic media (which I also recall Mrs. Fletcher speaking of a similar idea). I decided to give it a shot, because I strongly believe Huxley and Postman are right in the aspect that this generation is deeply influenced and consumed by media craze. I must admit that even though I am not a big "T.V." person, I am still eaten alive by the media and all it's glamour. "Each student has his or her own weakness-" Postman writes in the early paragraphs of the intro. Do you know how stressful it was for me to wake up in the morning by instinct and not by my always dependable alarm radio? Imagine how I felt when I skipped watching my favorite movies on the IFC last night. And might I mention, I literally felt like pulling out every strand of my eyebrows when I was just ITCHING to play a Fleetwood Mac vinyl or turn the T.V. to the Tennis Channel to catch a glimpse of Rafa Nadal! I thought it would be a piece of apple pie but being so immune to modern day technology and gossip in the media, it was a difficult challenge (and wasn't as sweet as apple pie but more like public-restroom-food-that-fell-on-the-floor-but-you-decide-to-eat-it-anyway kind of pie). It was challenging and I did cheat a little but quickly caught myself. But, here I am, 24 hours later, using a computer (Ahh, the irony.) During the fast I ended up reading half the dictionary, something I would never do if I had that access to the Internet. So after my fasting, I'm beginning to feel that the media hasn't left one thing, one subject, one concept untouched. EVERYthing is exploited. From children on shows such as 'Toddlers in Tiaras' to news stories on more graphic shows like 'To Catch a Predator'. So I raised a question; Do you think us humans would be able to think for ourselves without the media? Could we still continue to function without the medias opinions and or consent? Must we make things such as child abuse, tornadoes and weight loss entertaining by creating reality shows about them? What is so wrong with the written word and speech these days, Is it not powerful enough? I won't share with you my answer to this, not now anyway. Instead, I ask you to please attempt the media fast, and I'll guarantee that if you successfully go 24 official hours without electronic media (this including cell phones, ipods, radio, T.V., computers-Zilch! Nada! None!) then you'll figure out an answer of your own to my wonders.