8 Hours without Mass Media

    8 Hours without Mass Media
Looking back at the 8 hours I just spend without using my cell phone, TV and computer, meticulously avoiding magazines, bill boards and other news carriers, I have to say that it was quite challenging for me to keep it up. What was especially hard to do, was to abandon my blog and my YouTube account for the time being. They are both about political world events, in particular about my home country Egypt. Since the start of the revolution or Arab Spring, the news have spiraled and you really need to stay connected not only to the conventional media like news papers and TV, but more importantly you need to closely follow the individual uploads posted as videos or tweets. On my own channel, blog and twitter, I get a lot of commentaries and subscriptions and I am always eager to keep the discussion and exchange going. My specialty is news, “what is going on right now” and to give my thoughts and opinion about what is happening. Therefore, I really felt the suffering of missing out on the latest events, which would be essential in order to be able to produce an opinion as well as respond to the commentaries or emails left in response to my videos and essays. So to say, even if I decided to read the posts and to answer, I realized I would not have been able to do so, because of my lack of information about what is going on, following my abstinence from the news at that time.

    Besides the lack of information, the social part also played a substantial role. I missed communicating and debating opinions with friends and “followers”. This is the part of my day when I usually relax and socialize and enjoy reading posts and thoughts of others. It is a personal exchange and not having it in my day makes me feel like something important is missing.  Another difficulty not less significant was the fact that as a business owner being connected to people is an essential part of my work day. Not communicating with them means doing harm to my business. It is not only about these substantial calls to suppliers and employees to keep the daily routines going, but also the communications with customers even if their calls do not seem to be directly connected to the business. As a restaurant owner, I am part of a neighborhood and people expect me to be part of their news system when it comes to local events and issues. A lot of my business is generated by these kinds of contacts and my cell phone is always busy.

    My place is also a central point for printed news. There are always people distributing flyers and putting up posters announcing upcoming events. Therefore, it is almost impossible for me not to know what is hanging there in my windows or sitting on my counter for the purpose of informing the neighborhood about the latest events.
Another place to be checked on daily is our business web site and the email address connected to it. I need to know if there have been any problems with customer orders or the service in general. This is obviously a vital part of responding to our customers’ needs, especially in a neighborhood environment where people are closely connected.
Apart from the posters in my shop, it was easiest to stay away from bill boards that I widely ignored. Also, TV is not a very essential part of where my information comes from and could therefore be neglected without further difficulties. Printed media, like newspapers and magazines are not very important either. However, I have some newspaper online that I read and check on daily and that are essential for me to stay informed.

    Conclusively, I have to admit that a break from mass media could be a period of relaxation and self-focus. You definitely start to busy yourself with other things sometimes into the experiment and remember things you used to do before the “invasion” of electronic media. However, it becomes clear that however alleviating it feels, electronic media is essential to the way I live today and I conduct my business and make my living – as well as I connect with others. Not having access to it definitely interferes with my efficiency and social competency.