Media Fast 2025 Protocol
excited and ready to unplug for the rest of the year
Each year, I take 77 days, or about 20% of the year off from consuming media.
It’s the most worthwhile thing that I do, and I’ve written at length about the benefits of this in this essay from last year’s fast:
The Main Protocol
No social media (fb, ig, substack, twitter, etc)
No video content (netflix, anime, tiktok, youtube)
No music, podcasts
No video games, phone games, etc.
No books
No pornography + full jing/semen retention (essay on that below if you’re curious)
The Exceptions
Each year comes with a few caveats. Events with friends are still on the table; if someone asks me to attend a concert or a movie in the theater I’m not going to turn them down for the sake of the fast.
I will allow myself to read one chapter of One Piece per week, the greatest story of our generation
I will allow myself to watch one episode of Gachiakuta per week, as it is me and my partner’s show rn
I will allow myself to create & publish writing here on Substack, but NOT on facebook or instagram. I will not check notifications, DMs, or scroll the Notes feed
Same for YouTube; creating & publishing videos is on the table, consuming them is not
I will allow myself to create music, like last year
I will allow minimal Discord use—some of my accountability buddies and cultivation groups are housed there, and there’s no endless feed to fall into // not a sweet poison for me like YouTube is
The Additions
I want to up the ante this year, just a little bit.
I will increase meditation from once per day to twice per day, morning and evening.
I will not directly write about the results from this fast. However, the results will manifest in other ways. The reasoning for that is best explained by the below essay on Shakti. I probably shouldn’t even be writing THIS essay rn, but I’ll learn that lesson next year:
Odds and Ends
This year’s fast will be very interesting, very dynamic. I recently moved to a small town in the Netherlands, and meeting people has been more difficult than I expected.
Last year’s fast was incredibly fruitful largely due to the wonderful people back home surrounding me, and the degree to which I could lean into their company. This year will be much more solitary, and I’m excited to see what will come up in the challenge. Hopefully some raw ass breakbeats I’ve been meaning to make some raw ass breakbeat+bansuri music. I’m also funemployed && micro-retired at the moment and lacking the structure of a job will be even more ~ w a v y ~
I think many people would discover something about themselves with a little break from media. I’d recommend trying it for a day, a weekend, a week. I often discover and rediscover 1. how “addicted” I am to it and 2. how easy and normal life can be without it.
I’m feeling pretty CreativityPilled at the moment, and all the empty space may crystallize into some banger essays and art (and breakbeats).
All of a sudden there’s nearly 2 thousand of you here, how time flies! I’m grateful to have you and I hope you get something out of reading my writing.
Stay blessed,
Cuckfucius
Another cuck classic
Youtube is my biggest vice too. I just did a 2 week youtube "fast" and I really enjoyed how quiet my days felt. You just inspired me to extend this to the end of the year as well, Thanks :D