Chyna Law
After spending one hour of media consumption in a mediated environment, I feel the same as when I started because this is something that I frequently find myself doing. In between classes or just in general when there is a lapse in my schedule of not having to be at work, driving, or in class, I find myself on my phone. To different people this could either be a very negative thing or an acceptable way to pass the time. For this hour, I cycled through Twitter, Youtube, and Snapchat which are the media sources that I use most often. Through these sources I am able to observe the fraction of other people’s lives and content that they choose to share with the internet. I follow a few comedians on Twitter because I enjoy reading about the humorous and entertaining things that they post. On Youtube, I watch videos that summarize popular horror movies because it’s like getting to watch the movie but in a more condensed format with a funny host. And finally, I use Snapchat to communicate and have conversations with friends that I don’t get to see often. During this hour a close friend was updating me on a work meeting that she had to attend and that her manager was yelling at them.
The information that I received after spending an hour in naturalistic environment was much less than from observing media. I chose to walk around a trail in Providence Park then sit on a bench for the rest of the hour. Additionally, without any technology it was difficult to measure the time. Time seemed to move much more slowly when the only form of entertainment was my own thoughts. Maybe because this forested area is very close to the city and surrounded by a park, but there weren’t many animals present. The only information to observe was a building and a few signs without anything of much importance written on them. Some people were playing soccer in the open field area. Due to the relatively short trail, I walked a few laps to take up more time and on each lap everything stayed the same. Time seemed to move slowly and next time I would choose a more complex trail or bring a book to stay occupied.
After this experience I learned that I am very dependent on receiving information from my phone. I came to this conclusion because my hour of mediated entertainment went by quickly and I didn’t want it to be over. However, in a natural environment I felt just as comfortable but it just went by much slower likely because the external information received was much lower. I think in order to live a balanced life people should have a balance of both experiences. Experiencing high volumes of mediated information constantly can be negative because it doesn’t give the brain time to relax and form its own conclusions. Although not experiencing enough media can lead to a disconnect from the events occurring in the modern world.
