By Abigail Kokkinakis
Consuming one hour of media is a lot easier than it seems, especially with how much technology has advanced. Twenty years ago, most media consumption was done by watching TV or hoping onto Myspace to see what the most popular creators were doing. Now there are countless social media website’s and apps. My chosen media sources were TikTok and Twitter. I first went on Twitter where I was bombarded with news stories about Russia and Ukraine, peoples thoughts on the most recent episode of Euphoria, and the people complaining that McDonald’s new “Menu Hacks” do not come already assembled. Now that my brain is spinning from reading these “trending” topics, I hop over to TikTok. Contrastingly, TikTok has a page of content for me, specially made for me, otherwise known as the “FYP” or For You Page. I come across comedy videos, more Euphoria opinions, cleaning and organizational videos, and cooking videos. TikTok’s content was a lot more relaxed and it felt more people were getting along in comparison to Twitter, where it seems everyone hates everyone.
After that hour that felt like 10 minutes, I headed over to Burke Lake Park where I took a walk around the lake. As I was walking around the lake in silence, I kept reaching for my phone to check the time but remembered I set an hour timer so there was no need to keep glancing at my phone. My mind went to a million different places as I was walking from thinking about school, to thinking about work, to thinking about what I am going to eat for dinner when I returned. I tried to quickly change my mind and tried very hard to focus on the present and what I was observing now. I noticed how everyone walking past me had headphones in, talking to their friend they went with, or were focusing on their dog they were walking. I noticed how much wildlife was out even on the chilly, snowy day I went for my walk.
One thing for sure I can say is my ability to focus on social media was a lot better than my ability to focus on being present outside. When I was younger, I was able to use my creativity and spend hours and hours outside. Now, spending an hour outside without looking at my phone was honestly, painful. However, if you ask me what TikTok videos I watched in that hour I would not be able to list one, but I do remember very clearly what I saw on my hike, and what thoughts were going through my head. The information I saw on twitter was useful since it kept me updated on certain news topics, but TikTok was just mindless entertainment. The hour outside made me slow down from my life and reminded me to take a moment outside and my life problems are not as stressful as I have been making them out to be.