Six months ago, I went on a screen fast. At the time, like many people in Hong Kong, I was consuming television, movies and entertainment in large chunks. My nightly ritual was an episode or two of a popular TV show, plus part of a movie. The low point was when I started talking about characters from TV shows as though they were real people.
So, last December, I bravely put myself into self-imposed rehab. I unplugged my television, packed away all my DVDs, stowed the iPad, quit going on YouTube, and stayed out of HMV. I limited my phone and computer use to strictly work purposes.
It has been six long months, with co-workers, students and family members asking me every single day: 'Did you cave in yet?' No, I didn't. But here's the bigger shocker - I don't intend to. My original goal was to keep up my screen-free existence for six months. Now, I can't imagine stopping.
By getting away from the screen, my life has improved in ways I could never have foreseen. Shortly after stopping, I became bored. My boredom was all-encompassing. Some days, I longed to view a screen so badly that I would hop into a taxi just to glance at the tiny screen behind the driver's seat. But then, guilt would set in and I'd have to block my vision. This was my withdrawal phase.
Within two weeks, though, I got over it. I was still bored, but I started to embrace it. Boredom led me to read more than a dozen books. It helped me make the perfect roast chicken. It made me a better mother and a better teacher. I became a passionate story-teller; switching off the screen forced me to switch on my imagination.
I'm not saying I don't have bad days, when I think to myself, what kind of life is this? Last month, I wanted to watch a movie so badly, I actually went online and found the screenplay. I devoured it in 20 minutes, only to feel unsatisfied and frustrated because movies, after all, are not meant to be read.