You don’t have to go live in the woods (unless you want to)

April 15, 2019

What can you do to further the cause of Slow Media, as a citizen, student, colleague, and consumer?

Just make time for enjoying print and analog media, as well as unmediated experiences.

Experiment with vintage techniques that will stretch and exercise your brain, like Slow Reading, Slow Listening, keeping a paper journal, or navigating by map.

Be mindful about the email you send, check messages less frequently, and turn off alerts to the extent possible.

Develop habits like breathing, monotasking, and taking breaks whenever you use fast media.

Set some parameters for building Slow intervals into your schedule, even for a few hours.

Practice empathy for people whose media habits, schedules, lifestyles, and tempos might differ from your own.

That’s the easy part. Then there’s becoming a green media consumer and citizen, which means recognizing that media use and production involves limits and that planetary resources are finite.

Resist buying media that you don’t need and reuse what you can.

Consume media products and services from companies that follow sustainable practices.

Support people who produce magazines, journalism, films, websites, and other media products in ethical ways.

Dispose of digital devices responsibly.

Learn some basics of environmental science and become comfortable with a new vocabulary of consumption.

Get familiar with processes that take place invisibly behind your screens.

Do some research, using resources like Greenpeace’s Click Clean Reports and GoodElectronics’ website.