Thoreau Challenge: Post #2

So, it's been almost five full days now. I have to admit, this is almost becoming ridiculous. Again, it's not that I can't deal without the technology interacting with my life, it's the fact that I can't get away from it that's posing a problem! Everywhere I go, everything I do, there seems to be a t.v. or radio on! The worst part is, I don't even notice it most of the time so I will just be subconsciously listening to music at, for example, work (playing over the entire store), and not even think twice about it. Basically, my main observation up to this point has been that it's not terribly hard resisting the temptation to not watch t.v., text, or surf the web, but that actually staying away from it at all costs seems to be literally impossible. That said, it's almost as if the world that we live in today is intentionally/purposefully making it so that modern technology is a part of EVERYONE'S life. It doesn't even seem like we really get a choice anymore. For example, I went into a restaurant this weekend and the radio/music was playing throughout the restaurant. So, even if you wanted to avoid the seemingly MILLION televisions staring you down from each wall, you didn't even have the option when it came to the music. Now that I think about it though, I wonder what the restaurant's response would have been had I asked them to turn the music off so that I could enjoy my dinner conversing and not feeling like I was in the center of the "electronics department" at Target. I can't really say for sure how they would react but my guess is, they wouldn't be willing to turn the music off (or t.v.'s even) for me, as this would affect the experience/comfort of the other guests. This seems so ridiculous though! You can't even eat at a restaurant without having this technology seemingly "forced" upon you. Anyway, that was just a little bit of thought/(question?) I had from my experience this weekend. Is technology really an option/preference at this point? As for some of the things that I did besides watching movies/t.v., playing video games, ect., the list was short. I played some card games with some family on Friday night, which was nice, and on Saturday, I slept in without an alarm (which has been one piece of technology that I had to break the rules with this week - using an alarm clock). I did some crafty things throughout the day on saturday to keep me occupied and spent the day with Angelina, my girlfriend, doing things that didn't involve the television and computer. Which, I'll be honest, was actually nice for a change and have made both these weekend days go by a lot faster than I thought they would. One last thing that I wanted to point out was how exercise has been an important "go to" event during this past week. I made sure I did it every day, and for a pretty lengthy amount of time at that. I think this obviously says something about how technology has affected "America's Weight". With no televisions/computers and such, my day had plenty of free time that I filled with exercise. So, obviously, if others presented them with the same challenge (or even half of it - just cutting down on the technology), I think we'd eventually see a big change in the weight problem that we currently face in this country!