The media blackout month is a challenge that Ari Aal came up with after reading that the constant stimulation of the 3rd millennium is having deleterious effects on people’s ability to concentrate and think deeply. During this month, participants will drastically reduce their exposure to trivial media and low-value stimulation with the goal of breaking the addiction to this stimulation and regaining some of the cognitive abilities that may have been hindered by the phenomenon described above.
Start date: September 1, 2016
End date: September 30, 2016
Guidelines
Books
Allowed.
Participants can pre-determine one 30-minute window per day during which to check Facebook and other social media for the following reasons:
- Responding to event invites
- Creating content
- Creating events
Games
No games.
Internet
Specifically prohibited:
- The Onion
- news
- articles listing a prime number of arbitrary elements in an irrelevant list
- cat pictures
- dog pictures
- goat pictures
- naked human pictures
Movies
Not allowed.
Music
Allowed.
Podcasts & Audiobooks
Allowed, in the spirit that they should be educational/thought-provoking and not just entertaining or distracting
TV
No TV (special exemption for presidential debates)