Media fast 2027

I read this recently, about a “media fast” protocol some substacker is running for the rest of 2027:

• no books
• no movies, shows, netflix, youtube
• no social media / news
• no podcasts
• no music
• no adult content, no busting
• no videogames (small exceptions below)

(note: producing media is fine; I can make Andrew Puberman memes til the cows come home, just not consume media. There are exceptions: media consumed socially, like going to see a movie at the theater with friends, is still acceptable)

Intriguing.

Out of the list above, the ones applicable to me are books (~1 book/week), social media (~15m/day), podcasts (~1 hour/week), adult content (once in a while), and video games (~30m/day mostly with my brother). I don’t really watch movies/shows/youtube and don’t listen to much music these days. The biggest things to give up for me right now would definitely be books, adult content, and video games. Books especially.

I feel some resistance thinking about giving up books, but also I feel that I have been in a bit of a rut in terms of not taking action in my life lately. So doing something random like this that’s calling to me feels like the right move. Send it.

My personal rules for this media fast

Starting 10/16/26:

• No books, with a couple small exceptions
  • What we’re reading in my book clubs (Anna Karenina, The Unconsoled)
  • Dune 6 (because I want to finish the series before I forget all the context)
  • Zhuangzi/Tao te ching (in the middle of these and they’re short + fit the wibe)
• No movies/shows/netflix/youtube
• No social media
• No podcasts
• No music
• No adult content/masturbation
• No video games, except for with my bro
  • This is the one I’m debating the most about, might adjust it (eg add a time limit) based on how things go

What do I think I might do with the extra time? Possibly writing more on here, possibly more staring at the wall. Guess we’ll find out. I’ll capture notes & reflections below.

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10/19: so far I have been playing a lot of video games with my brother, as we are in Northern Virginia for a month. We also have been traveling (the flight, drive to Massanutten) so there hasn’t been a ton of time. I have noticed that my desire to seek out things to read has increased – when I check my email, I feel a stronger urge to open various substacks I am subscribed to, when normally I’m fine ignoring them. I have been more consistent about morning journaling, though I do always wonder if I’m doing more harm than good by ruminating on feelings in the journal. Sometimes it’s useful for releasing things that come up when I’m triggered (which happens more frequently as I’m in Nova / around my parents), but it can be counterproductive too. Better to stare at the ceiling at times.

10/22: it’s only been a week but this whole thing is feeling a little bit troll. I feel that I am mostly using my time as I was before? Perhaps I am writing a bit more on here & just generally futzing with personal site more. I do find myself wanting to read books. I really hate not being able to read books lmao, there are so many ideas I want to read & explore & respond to with my writing but I’m unable to at the moment. Still, this might be a useful constraint to get into a better writing habit. Let’s stick with this for at least a month and see what happens.

10/28: still feeling somewhat troll, the most valuable part of this so far has been no adult content/masturbation. I’ve only been reading the prescribed books and playing some video games with my brother. I would say the main area I’ve been deviating from the spirit of this so far is in reading online articles here and there. It hasn’t been tooo much but yesterday I did read a bunch. Chatting with & reading LLM output has also gone up since starting this. Hm.