Kyle Ellingsen
While taking a break from homework, I sat down on the couch to watch some television. I scroll through the different streaming options deciding what service I want to choose. I do not own cable so streaming apps are my only option at television. Before I decide on what to watch I look down to my Iphone and get distracted by all the social media and apps. First I go through the Twitter, reading through all the posts I have not read in the last couple of hours. I move over to the News sections and see articles about Pete Buttigieg being confirmed as teh US Secretary of Treasury. After catching up on twitter, I swing over to Instagram to scroll through pictures that I didn’t see the night before. The media on here is mostly selfies, pictures/videos of people skiing/snowboarding, sketches from my tattoo artist and random advertisements like UPS. Seeing the tattoos from my artist brouight me into the Pinterest app and I was looking at new tattoo ideas for over thirty minutes. I then move into my finance apps that holds some stocks that I am keeping an eye on. Hoping that one day some of these cryptocurrencies will one day pay off. Once I go through looking at my applications, I log into HBO Max and watch The Little Things. One of my coworkers had talked to me about this movie and told me I should watch it.
Spending my hour outside was a very peaceful one. It has been snowing over the last 24 hours and there is about five to six inches of snow on the ground. I decide to walk from my back yard out to the Occoquan river that is behind my house. As I walk into the woods, I see before me that no one has walked out here for awhile, leaving each step with a satisfying crunch. I can feel the cold on my nose and fingertips even though my hands are shoved into my hoody. I can here a faint chirping of a bird or two but don’t see any wildlife moving. As I make my way to the river, I can see the water moving so slowly with not much movement below. I take in the scene as snow has blanketed all the trees, shrubs and bushes in the area. I notice some cardinals (m/f) flying in the distance as they call out to each other. I can see some tracks in the embankments of what seems to be a rodent of somekind (opossum/raccoon).I can also hear the faint hum in the distance of what seems to be a plane landing.
I would say one of the things that I learned most from this is that when we are inside we pay little attention to many things, but when we are in nature, we pay great attention to just a few small things. When I was outside, the calmness of the scene and monotone colors, left me feeling calm. When I was online, it felt like I was doing a bunch of menial tasks with no real reward. The feelings always persist with social media that if I do not check something, that I might be missing out on something. One major difference in the two settings was using most of my senses when I was outside. When I was outside I was smelling the air, listening to the sounds of the forest, feeling the cold on my skin, and watching different movements. When you are using media, you are really only satisfying yourself visually.