Media Free Living Spaces - Week 3

5/19 - Quick update to our family adventure. I thoroughly enjoy the peace associated with not having media streaming into our home. Never, do I have to worry what they might come across on the internet or the television. I love the quiet in the house - that is, it's quiet when we aren't talking or goofing off or laughing hysterically. I was very pleased, I must admit, when my son called and said the second Peretti book had arrived and wanted to know if he could drop everything to read it. I don't know if I can 'relight' our house after the summer is over.......

I have learned that I must plan well, though. I must take care of my communication needs, per a detailed list, or I will invariably forget something and feel as though I need to run to Starbuck's, the library or some other 'hot spot' to take care of the forgotten task. Still, I'm getting better at this. I also wonder if some of my urgency to take care of things immediately isn't associated with the fact that I'm accustomed to walking to my computer and taking care of business/communication whenever the thought occurs to me. Since I can no longer do this, it bothers me physiologically to have to wait. But, I'm getting used to having to wait until tomorrow.....it's hard but getting easier.

Finally, I picked up a couple of techno tricks that probably everyone else in the world has learned. One, when I go to an internet cafe, and open ITunes, I have found that I am able to view the music libraries of my neighbors. This wasn't a pleasant experience in the beginning as I thought someone had hacked into my daughter's ITunes library and I thought we were seeing their library by mistake. This particular library we had access to had over 8000 songs - many of which were labeled EXPILCIT in the big red letters. I nearly panicked until my son came over and told me he had experienced shared libraries with his cousin whenever they'd have their computers open in our house at the same time. Interesting......happily, the library in question disappeared when I left the internet cafe. I have also found the entire TWU campus is 'hot'. Library closed early (at 6p) between semesters and I had a proposal I was trying to complete and get submitted.....Walked outside the library doors, sat down in the beautiful courtyard and kept working!!!

Final thought - what if parents across the United States started disconnecting their homes in order to protect their children? What if we were able to send a message to media service providers that we want the product cleaned up and safe before it comes in our home. What if we told advertisers through disconnection that we are fed up with their onslaught on childhood?!!!!! I, for one, have had enough of it......

I want the good we get from media but I'm tired of suffering the bad.