30 Days Without Media Made Me More Social, Focused, and Confident

The last 30 days I did a Media Fast. That meant consuming no feeds, news, email newsletters, or anything outside of books or intentionally viewing movies.

After 30 days without feeds, I feel more social, more focused, and more confident. Here’s my experiment, and what I’m doing now to re-integrate technology into my life.

The last 30 days I did a Media Fast. That meant consuming no feeds, news, email newsletters, or anything outside of books or intentionally viewing movies.

Media fasting is not about seeing technology through a negative lens. Media fasting is about observing your current habits and finding better ones that give you more of what you want in life.

Technology is powerful, so powerful, that it takes a good deal of intention to use it for it’s benefits and not fall prey to it’s pitfalls.

The Experiment

*Please note, the book I read as a guide is Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. Great book, highly recommend and covers many of the key points.

For 30 days, the experiment is no media consumption outside of the necessary. I would check emails and texts, but not read any newsletters. I would give up podcasts (this ended up being a bigger shift than I expected) and swap to audio books.

I would, heaven forbid, walk a few miles without headphones in.

I believe you need at least 5 days of fasting based on this experience to get the benefit. You might benefit from a 1x per week day like a Shabbat type practice. Here are the rules I set.

Media Fast Rules

Uh oh… 30 days without podcasts! What am I supposed to do while driving or walking long distances?? See what I realized about podcasts below.

The Rules:

1. No feeds: No scrolling Twitter/X, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn feeds.

2. No news: (Should be easy), however that means no newsletters as well

3. No podcasts/YouTube

4. Books only. Should get some good use out of my Daylight computer.

5. Music is ok. Will use Spotify.

6. Purposeful Research is ok. For example planning my trip to Japan or finding a new local gym to try out I can look at a Reddit page or a hotel’s Instagram.

7. Movies: Would be OK.

Reasons to be more Intentional with Your Tech

1. You’re want more friendship.

Social media replaces real social connection with small, tiny, puny, scraps of connection. I don’t even know if I can call it connection. You can go look at 1,000 instagram posts while scrolling, like 10 of them, and get a teeny tiny fraction of what your social connection needs are compared to a 5 minute phone call. If you want to be relationship and connection poor, scroll social media. If you want to be relationship and connection full (not lonely) call people or schedule something with them. Go to events in your community. I’m trying to shift my default from text/comment to call/plan. I caught up with an old friend by phone, and invested more time planning events with people here locally.

2. You want more unique experiences.

Phones are Lo-Fi tech. We think technology is high-fi, and the world is boring in comparison. Truthfully, the amount of data streaming through real-life is 1 million times as great as what you get on a phone. Remember, to your brain, a screen, while bright and flashy, is just a glass brick that you can barely grip in your hand. Your thumbs interact with it.

Compare this to a hike in the mountains, and your brain is being mesmerized by a tiny flashlight compared to the level of detail (smell, see, taste, touch, feel, etc.) that you get in real life. Your brain craves full-detail reality. It’s easy to avoid new experiences when you can just sit on the couch and scroll your phone. With boredom as the alternative, suddenly I said “yes” more. I recently attended a local gallery show of an artist who’s work I liked, and a movie night at a community theater that plays old reruns.

3. You want to be in the driver’s seat.

As Tyler Durden wisely told us,

“The things you own, end up owning you.”

This is just as true for possessions as it is for the apps, websites, and media that you frequent. Your inbox can start to own you. Instagram can own your downtime. In doing this media fast, I felt my subjective “posture” towards the tools in my life change. I felt in control, and I felt like I used technology, technology didn’t use me. It’s a good feeling. It increases your sense of capability. Technology, through this lens feels amazing. I have all of these tools I can choose to use. It’s made tech feel more positive.

My Results: ~20+% Better

I timed the fast while on a family vacation in Ithaca, NY. This gave me ample distractions to hike or go swim in a lake. I’d say about day 5 or 6 I started noticing positive benefits.

Strangely, I started having memories. Older memories and I started thinking about all types of things I haven’t thought about for a long time. I think my brain, bored from lack of stimulation, started serving me up moments from the past I thought had disappeared.

My self-ratings after about 2 weeks;

Quantitatively, if I was to rate different areas of my life 1-10, I believe these scores would be…

• Social connection (+20%)

• Improved focus (+15%)

• Increased reading (+25%)

  • I probably could read ~2-3 books every month at this new pace.

• Better work performance and confidence (+25%)

• Enhanced fitness (+10%)

Honestly this is a pretty great intervention if you look at those ratings!

I already a pretty strong filter for how I use tech to begin with, and that means you might feel even more benefits than I did if you feel like you have strong media addictions.

I want to use technology to shape my own life. Not have someone else use that technology to shape my life for me.

Using Tech Vs. Tech Using Me

Here’s the best part: I don’t even need to deprive myself moving forward, I actually can re-introduce most of tech use to make things even better. Essentially I believe now I can get the majority of the benefits with very little downside!

Using tech intentionally looks like…

• A friend is in town, so I go do research and plan something fun. Not a side-bar rabbit hole beyond that.

• I would pick up my iPad, send some important emails, archive the rest, shut it, and then go for a swim. Technology was used in blocks for specific purposes to accomplish work I cared about.

• I am planning travel to Japan, so I go through Reddit searches to find the right shows to go see. Book them. Then I sign off for the night, no distraction.

Seen through this lens, I want to re-iterate that technology is AMAZING. I am excited about how much leverage it can give me. I can tap on a screen and publish to thousands of people on Substack. I can find great recommendations for niche interests of mine on Reddit. I can connect with local communities through Luma.

The point is to use tech as a tool with a purpose and not be used by it.

Intentional Tech: My Re-Integration Playbook

So what am I choosing to do moving forward? How do I re-integrate tech in new and useful ways of using the amazing tools at our disposal?

Here is what I’m going to do to re-integrate tech:

Podcasts

• Weekends only (“cheat day)

• Dedicated podcast apps (not YouTube or Spotify)

• Weekday exceptions only for specific research needs

Blogs and Newsletters

• Weekends only

• Use RSS + Readwise Reader to save what I find during the week

• Saturday or Sunday sit with a coffee and read for 1-2 hours all of the best pieces saved.

Social Media

• X is Saturday only, only for financial markets, using curated lists.

  • 60-minute browser limit

  • Desktop only

• No Instagram scrolling (posting is fine)

• No LinkedIn scrolling (posting is fine)

Email

• 60-minute daily browser limit.

Readwise Reader (Example)

I want to share one more note about Podcasts. This was the biggest thing I removed from my day-to-day experience. If you asked me today “Why do you listen to podcasts?” Looking back at taking time away from them shows me that I honestly don’t have any clear answer or reason.

Moving forward, my intention is to select podcasts that are either, A: Research I’m clearly doing on a topic or B, pure entertainment (comedy shows, etc.).

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What the Fast Really Showed Me

30 days without feeds gave me a 20% lift in how I feel day to day. That in itself is pretty powerful. But more importantly, it gave me proof that I get to choose how I use these tools. It’s made me feel more confident I can create the life I want thanks to technology, while not being held back by it. We have so many incredible apps and tools are our fingertips.

How are you using them? How are you being used by them? What is it that you want more in your life, and how can these tools help you get there?

With so much value and leverage available, it’s a shame to let it go to waste.

As always, let me know your thoughts and how I can help,

xx David

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