Off the Grid

The Experiment: One month with the computer, tv, and radio off, completely.

At the beginning of the year the thought came to me to have a sort of media fast, no tv, no computer, no radio for a month. I've been asked a lot about my reasons. Some people think I'm crazy, some think I have some special powers that allow me to survive off-line for any amount of time, some think I have a vendetta against techonology and I think it's evil so I want to rid it from my life. None of these things is true, except maybe for the crazy part.... I've never been officially diagnosed. :)

Reason #1: Elder Bednar's talk about techonology inspired me to be less dependent on it, and more reliant on the gifts God has given me to experience this wonderful beautiful world, and everything and everyone on it.

Reason #2: Psalms 46:10 "Be Still and know that I am God." I've heard many talks about how the "noise" of the world, literal and figurative, can prevent us from feeling the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I wanted to see if I could open myself up to those promptings by eliminating some of the noise.

Reason #3: I wanted to see if I could do it.

Reason #4: They say it takes 20 or so odd days to develop a habit. I was hoping it only took 30 or so to un-learn one.

I learned a lot about myself, and it was a great experience, albeit difficult. I would recommend it to anyone. Although I will say that this was not intended to last forever. I am not writing off all technology or media. I appreciate it perhaps more now than I did before. But seriously, a month? Anyone can do this for a month.

I'll share a few of the things I learned on the blog over the next month, in case you were curious. :)

Lesson Learned #1: The kids don't want to watch movies nearly as much as I want them to watch moveis.

I thought this experiment would be most difficult on the kids who wouldn't understand the purpose. Jeremiah often said "Hey mom, can we watch a movie on netflix!?" So I thought he was as addicted to media as I was.

I was wrong. First day I explained my plan like this: "We're doing a little experiement. We're not going to turn the tv or the computer, or the radio on all month long, which means no movies, and no games on the computer. But that means that mom won't have any work to do on the computer, so I'll have more time to play with you guys. That is our experiment and our hypothesis is that we will be able to find so many new and exciting things to do instead!" His response "You mean you could play games like TAG with me?!" Yup. he was so excited about the opportunity to spend more time with mom, that he didn't care about not having movies or the computer. And I could probably count on one hand the number of times during the month that he asked me to watch a movie or play a game on the computer. When he did he was easily redirected to a different activity. But there were a lot of times that my mind automatically thought "boy, if only I could put a movie on for the kids."..... But I did it! I managed an entire month without the tv-babysitter for even a minute and I STILL managed to get a TON done, play with the kids, have cheerful children, and a relatively clean house, run all my errands, fulfill all my responsibilities, and read a book!

Conclusion: I can do this! Parenting is really hard, I'll be honest. But I can do hard things. the TV doesn't make it as easy as I always thought it did. It was just as easy (most of the time) without it. I can do this! And my kids are not the ones propelling our media consumption, it's me! I really never knew this! I always thought that they fought for it. I was truly surprised.

More lessons learned to follow, and pictures, mom, I promise. Have a FANTASTIC week of Spring!