The 38 Commandments Of Media Use

Never to forget that light feeling. When you’ve been away from your screens for a prolonged period of time. 

Not to underestimate the slow, psychological poison of technology.

Not to chase the shadows cast by your screens at the expense of your life. 

Not to rationalise excessive technology use.

To always, at every opportunity, choose the real world and not the digital one.

Your body becomes good at what you teach it to do. If you sit still while your mind is lost in the digital world, then your body shall atrophy. After all, sitting still hunched over a computer doesn’t require much muscle tone — so your body will not provide it.

Your mind adapts itself to every task, including consuming media. Watching videos will create a passive mind. Social media will create an unsatisfied mind. Internet browsing creates a distracted mind. There is no “this doesn’t count” or “I just do this to relax”. For your mind, every single thing you do becomes a part of you.

Not to forget — that human beings are not evolved to sit in a chair and watch screens. 

Think of those you’ve seen in old videos or in poor countries. Their light, steady gaze and easy smiles. Then think of your own twitchy gaze and stiff smile. Ponder on what you’ve lost. 

To notice the slow of time when away from technology.

Think of your screen-time in days prior. And realise that almost none of it can be remembered. Time poured into a drain. 

To always approach technology with intention. This will be your anchor as the winds and whirlpools of the digital world pull on your precious attention.

The creators of technology who profit from stealing your time.

To switch everything off — and remember how it feels to be alive.

Even a perfect digital world could never be as satisfying as the imperfect one you were born into.

If they were speaking face to face they wouldn’t act like that. 

The light breeze. The sun on your face. A quiet walk in nature. How they’re all a thousand times more fulfilling than the superstimuli found on screens. 

Never to digitise your human urges.

Incels and Hikikomoris — how technology has trapped them in a looping nightmare.

To always remember that the news does not represent the entirety of reality. 

Their faces as they stare down at their phones.

To never click unconsciously.

To always, as much as possible, act the same in the digital world as you do in the real world. 

Screens are not a necessity for a fulfilled life. To think so is an illusion.

Like a bolt of lightning or water running downhill, human beings (like all of nature) shall always be inclined to take the path of least resistance. And technology is the fastest, most accessible path to stimulation. Yet as human beings, we have the choice to delay gratification for a greater reward down the road. Only children and dogs are unable to do so.

26. Life is perceived as short by those who spend it on screens.

27. When has awareness of world events made you happier? And when has your mere awareness had any effect on these events?

28. The dazed feeling after watching television. The scattered feeling after browsing the internet. The feeling of presence when in nature. Choose.

29. The negative emotions they induce in you for their own profit.

30. Like the sheep dog herds the sheep, algorithms herd the humans.

31.The youth of millions – stolen by screens.

32. The fashion in which you interact with your screens shall determine the course of your entire life. There is nothing trivial about it at all.

33.Those who quarrel online do not bicker with people. Instead, they quarrel with figments of their own imagination.

34. The producer remembered and rewarded. The consumer punished and forgotten.

35. You do tomorrow as you do today. Watch porn today, you’ll repeat the behaviour tomorrow. Play video games today, you’ll play them tomorrow. What you do now is what you’ll do in the future. If you want to change, change what you do now. Now. Now.

36. You say: “I just do this to pass the time”. But why are you “passing time” in the first place? Did you forget that your time is limited? Did you forget about your death? Now that you’ve remembered once again, can you still justify spending another hour on your screens?

37. Which is reality? The chaos on your screen, or the quiet peace in the room that surrounds it?

38. You become the media you consume