Fast Media, Media Fast

Book excerpt: Media overload threatens quality of life, relationships, and intellectual and social development of children. The author is a modern-day Thoreau, living for a month in a media-less Walden and has become an advocate for media responsibility. He shares his experiences, providing a guide on how to prepare, experiment, and learn during a media fast (or diet or blackout). He describes communities that are "no media" pockets of society, such as the Old Order Amish, who ban all electronic media. Readers learn how to find personal balance by stepping outside the media maelstrom.