I'm continuing a thread started in Media Free? That's easy...and scary. Know why? (Part 1). You can find the link thread at the bottom of this post. I'm pondering if it's true that people have a hard time unplugging and getting off the grid. Part 1 mentioned several blog posts that caught my eye and lead to this thread. Part 2 linked announcing going off the grid with asking someone to watch your house while you're away and Part 3 provided some hints as to why some people can get off the grid more easily than others.
Part 4 had me wondering why popular culture suggests that taking time for ones' self is an undesirable activity and Part 5 listed some things we've documented in our research. We continue from there.
A media free zone. According to one of the posts (MediaFreeZones) that spawned this arc, "A MediaFreeZone™ (or MFZ) is a space in your home that you set aside as a quiet place. No computers, television, radio, music (unless you are making it) are allowed in this space. Reading is permitted, as is talking, drawing and writing. Any room in your home can qualify as an MFZ.
"It's a place that family members and roommates know as a quiet area. In the same way that children are taught to respect quiet in a library, they will quickly grasp the concept of the MFZ."
Okay. I'm way out of the loop on this one. We need to set a place aside for this?
We have a music room in our house. And a library. I've written about this before, in Paid Search Delivers Magic. Some of our most relaxing evenings are spent on our back porch, listening to the earth fall asleep while we read. I'll practice guitar on the back porch or in the music room. The piano I always practice in the music room. I was in the piano marching band once but the straps kept on cutting into my shoulders so I had to quit.
I wonder if what I'm describing is cultural. I know several families in Atlantic Canada, Scotland, eastern and western Europe and South America who have just the opposite of a MediaFreeZone. They have a MediaRoom. The tv, stereo, computer, electronic games (if any) are in this one room. I know several very talented people here in the US who make a living studying SIMM behavior. SIMMing deals with how people handle multiple media inputs simultaneously.
I mentioned to some folks interested in SIMM one of the women NextStage studied, a Mrs. Goulet. Mrs. Goulet can sit and knit, watch tv, have a radio going beside her, a book in her lap, talk to her husband while paying attention to her two children and the family dog simultaneously. She had no problem at all when I would randomly throw questions at her. The phone rang, she answered it and just added it to the mix.
People who have studied haragei, tan t'ien and similar arts (in their true, native, non-westernized forms) also seem to easily deal with multiple inputs. They also seem to have little trouble unplugging. If they were every plugged in at all.
And to keep myself honest, I also know some non-immigrant American families who limit their family's access to electronic media and not their access to print or playing music. They also listen to music as a family.
Also yes, the underlying thread is still growing and making itself known.
(more to follow)
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- Email Bankruptcy blog posts
- The Eventing Yourself Blog arc
- Going Off the Grid
- In this arc:
- MediaFreeZones
- Proof I'm a Luddite
- Unplugging... why is it so hard?
- Voluntary Simplification blog posts
- IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
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