My Media Fast

By Jim Hagarty
2016

It is popular with some people these days to go on a “media fast.” They give up all “screens” – computers, tablets, smartphones, and TVs. Also newspapers and magazines. They decompress.

I went on such a fast a year ago for one month. It was hard but worth it. I started reading books again and finished a huge autobiography I thought I would never get through.

When it was over, I was more than glad to get back to all my devices.

I don’t know what the record is for the longest media fast, but I would like to make a claim for the world title.

I once went seven years with no screens. None whatsover. No laptop, no smartphone and especially no TV.

Then in 1958, my parents went to town and bought our first TV, and my fast was over.

It was good while it lasted.

Author: Jim Hagarty

I am a 72-year-old retired journalist, busy recovering from a lifelong career as an unretired journalist. This year marks a half century of my scratching out little fables about life. My interests include genealogy, humour and music. I live in a little blue shack in Canada and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble. I am not that good at it. I also spent years teaching journalism. Poor state of journalism today: My fault. I have a family I don't deserve, a dog that adores me, and two cars the junk yard refuses to accept. My prized possessions include my old guitar and a razor my Dad gave me when I was 14 and which I still use when I bother to shave. Oh, and my great-great-grandfather's blackthorn stick he brought from Ireland in the 1850s. I have only one opinion but it is a good one: People take too many showers.