I had a hard time making myself sit in front of a blank
screen for that long. I kept thinking of all of the other things I needed to
do, and then I remembered I wasn’t allowed to make lists. So then I looked at
how reflective my tv screen is. When it’s turned off, I can see a lot of the
room. That made me think that I need to clean the living room. I really had to
concentrate on keeping my eyes on just the screen. I found myself analyzing how
the TV isn’t really in the center of the wall, and the spot of paint I got on
the ceiling and never touched up when I painted the wall last year, and where
each of the things on my mantle below the TV came from. You get the idea. I was
very restless. Usually when I watch TV I’m also on Facebook, or folding
clothes, or doing something else, so to just watch the blank screen felt very
wrong. I was very uncomfortable, and felt like I was wasting my time. One of
the first reflections I wrote for this class was about a show I was watching on
Netflix that I saw as a guilty pleasure.
I really felt guilty just sitting here watching a blank screen.
Eventually, I ended up just staring at the word “Panasonic” at the bottom of my
TV and kind of zoning out. The theme song from the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
was stuck in my head (that’s my newest Netflix show) and that drove me crazy as
well. Twenty minutes can really be a loooooong time. I try to be aware of how
much time I’m spending on screens, but I know that I waste more time than I
should. With my boys “screen time” is a phrase that gets used often in my
house. (As in screen time’s over!)
Staring at a blank screen is silly, and I feel like maybe
the point of this exercise is to try to make you feel ridiculous for spending
so much time staring at an object--- whether it’s on or not. But I can’t help
but argue that staring at a blank screen is so much different than when it has
content on it. When I‘m watching TV, or on the internet, my brain is active and
I’m interacting in some way with what I’m watching/reading. However, we should
be conscious about how much time we spend on screens instead of interacting
with the people around us.
I think we are so used to being entertained or consuming media that when we aren't we don't know what to do with ourselves. It definitely makes me think about why I feel like why my mind is unable to calm down before sleep or when I want to relax.
ReplyDeleteCool reflection. You take a very active approach to media I think. The vast majority of students who do this exercise come away with "I spend way too much time on social media and it's making my life worse for xyz reasons!" or something about as doomsday as that. Some also start to (over)analyze reflections, whether it's of the room, of their faces, or they start noticing all the dust and scratches and smudges on their screens.
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