Lesson 1 Discovery Activity
Film as an Art

Life Without Movies

We live in such a turbulent ocean of recorded images and sounds that it is useful to take a few days off "on dry land," so to speak. There are two reasons to do this. First, it should be interesting to see the psychological effect that removing yourself from media, "cold turkey," has on you. Second, when we start looking at movies in the next lesson, perhaps they will be a bit fresher.

Time Estimate

Up to one week (depending on how long you can last)

Instructions

Don’t turn on the TV―at least until you begin the next lesson. Don’t watch tapes or DVDs either. For “extra credit,” don’t even listen to radio or CDs. See how long you can do this.

There is a class viewing assignment for Lesson 2 that you’ll probably want to do sometime this week. So, obviously, you’ll have to break your media fast at least once. But see how long you can last. (In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stay away from all other media for the duration of this class. But we’ll leave that decision up to you!)


Discussion

On the class message board, please post your responses to the following topics.

  1. Describe your experience without TV. How long did you last?
  2. If you couldn’t get through a whole week, explain why you felt you had to turn on the TV.