Mass Distraction

This may be different for certain people.  But what would happen if you turned off your TV, stepped away from your games, or stayed home from the pub?  Just with silence around and nothing to do.  Would you feel lost?  Confused as to what to do to past the time?

Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh said in a Dharma talk that, we thrive on these distractions because we are afraid of ourselves/one's own mind.  The more I think about this, and the more I try to break away from these stimuli, the more I find it is true.

Our present day is filled with a constant stream of input and data.  90% of it is essentially useless in all truth.  It's filler, not unlike the foods we think we taste with other elements mixed in.  It distracts us from who we truly are and who we can be.  But how many of us take time to take that inward step to realize what we are and where we are?

Understandably, not everybody's life can include a long period of solitude.  But what about a half hour, or even twenty minutes a day to reflect and be mindful of where we are and what we do?  Just to mindfully breathe and realize that we are not the only thing that matters. What we do inevitably influences others in some way. 

This is important even to the non-Buddhist.  It can be stress relieving, and open the mind to more things than a self-centered reality.