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It’s no surprise how far digital media has integrated into our daily lives, with rise in popularity of smartphones and netbooks/small internet appliances you are no further away from the whole world than you are from a delicious grande breve caramel macchiato. So it is with this that I began to think about a challenge. one that was inspired by a prominent technology writer, one maybe a bit easier to accomplish after I recently ordered and received my 32gb Apple iPad, one that’ll test my ability to procure what I want.
That challenge? To go a whole year without buying real, tangible media. One full year without buying a book, a compact disc, and *gasp* video games. A year, without any brand new video games? Had I started this challenge last year, it might be a bit easier, but since I’m going to PCS (Permanent Change of Station) this December back to the states. It’s going to be a bit of a challenge.
I know one of person who had tried this, Andy Ihnatko.  He had gone an entire calendar year without buying any real physical media (newspapers, comic books, books, cd/dvd, etc. etc.)

The Year Of No Media – I spent 2009 with the goal of acquiring no physical media of any kind. No CDs, no DVDs, no books, no magazines, no newspapers, no comics, no nothin’. It turned out to be a comprehensive report card on the transition from physical to digital media. What kinds of physical media can you do without? And which forms of information and entertainment have been completely passed by?

The rules I’m going to abide by are pretty simple.

• Can not, will not buy/trade any physical, tangible source of media. This includes newspapers, magazines, books, compact disc, digital video disc, video games. Note: This does not restrict my use of buying camera/Apple gear, etc.
• If I wish to procure any kind of media, it has to be completely digital and be from a digital source (iTunes, iBooks, AppStore, Amazon/Kindle store, Netflix, Mac|Life/magazine pdf subscription, etc.). It can not come on a disc to be transferred to my computer.

This isn’t that hard to figure out, but if you talk to anyone who knows me will say that the hardest challenge in this is going to be the procurement of video games. I could just jailbreak my PS3, or my XBox 360 and torrently download pirated copies of the latest and greatest games. But that’s just not legal, and let’s face it, I wont be  able to survive prison.
So will I be able to make it? *shrugs* It should be fun to try. Maybe, maybe if I’m good about this, I’ll actually post updates. (I’m horribly bad at that )

This entry was posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 6:54 PM and is filed under Personal, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.