Of Media and Ben

I remember the summer after fifth grade. It wasn't a particularly exciting summer, but I remember it nonetheless; in fact, that is exactly why I remember it. The circumstance was as follows. Every year previously, I had attended 4th "R" Camp during the summer for most of the summer. I had some other camps sprinkled in: B Street Acting Camp, Rock Climbing Camp at Pipeworks, Jewish Sleep-away Camp, but a good two-thirds of my summer was spent at 4th "R." I hated 4th "R" Camp. Sure it was fine for a few weeks, but it got excruciatingly dull. I could delve into exactly why, but I feel I've already diverged too much from the topic at hand. The point is, when it came time for my post-fifth-grade summer, I begged my mom not to make me go this time. She agreed, and I found myself at home for most of the summer. I didn't have a phone or a computer, and my family wouldn't get Netflix streaming until about a year later. I was bored out of my mind after the first week. I found myself trying to read a book here and there, but never really getting into it. I remember sitting in front of a pile of Legos and being uninspired to build anything, and I remember watching the same episodes of Justice League and Teen Titans over and over again from a DVD. It was the first summer I was free, and I just wasted it.

The summer after fifth grade is a topic of regret for me, because although in a way it was the first free summer, it was also the last. That August I got a phone for my birthday, and that Chanukah I got a laptop. As I mentioned earlier, my parents subscribed to Netflix streaming that year, and I found myself spending hours glued to episode after episode of Doctor Who, Adventure Time, Arrested Development, and eventually Firefly and Continuum. I was also texting and emailing my friends frequently, and I was discovering the world of Let's Plays on Youtube. 

Okay before I bore you to death with a rambling list of all the ways that I'm a huge nerd, let's talk about how my interests have shifted. As the years passed, I found myself running out of consistent material on Netflix. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to see, but now I'll just occasionally find a show I love and binge it over the course of a few months, and then there's a lull for a while; I'm not just going from one show to the next all the time. I've also found that my interests on Youtube slowly expanded, and then slowly collapsed back to a more specific area, that of Magic: The Gathering, whether it be product reviews, deck techs, or tournament coverage. Magic: The Gathering has also given me a gateway into the world of podcasts, which I would probably say are now my most consumed media. I am currently listening to five podcasts with weekly or semiweekly hour-plus length episodes, and I'm catching up from the start on one of them. Two are about Magic, another two are about philosophy, and one is dedicated to reviewing young-adult, post-apocalyptic novels and movies. (At this point you may be wondering why I listen to such a podcast, and I will tell you that it is not just tween girls talking about how hot sparkly vampires are. It's done by two very funny guys in their thirties who break down the plausibility and such of the stories, and it's actually pretty interesting and fun.)

I find that the desire to consume this media interferes with my homework quite often. When I get home, the first thing I do is check Youtube for any new videos. I proceed to watch most or all new ones before getting to my homework. I know this sounds like a very unhealthy habit, and I would agree with you; I could definitely get more sleep if I were a robot and started my homework immediately when I got home and worked straight through until it was done and went right to bed (but that's a topic for another post). I will sometimes attempt to listen to a podcast while doing my homework, and this always ends unproductively. I mostly listen to podcasts in the car, before P.E. starts, when I'm doing chores, and when I'm getting ready for and in bed. I feel like there's never a moment when I'm not otherwise engaged and I'm not listening to someone ramble on about Xeno and Stoicism or different card synergies.

It's interesting to consider how different my life would be if I didn't have access to all this media. It seems unlikely that I would jump right on my homework, but I'm not sure what I'd do instead. I don't feel like I'd manage my time any differently in general, but I do wonder what I'd be doing in the spaces I currently spend plugged in. Would it be like that fifth grade summer, or would I have found a better way to use my time? I do wonder, but not so much that I'd be willing to conduct an experiment. Now if you'll excuse me, a new episode of Philosiphize This! just came out, and it's not going to listen to itself.