Ricky Gatz
Media Hour:
First, I open snapchat to view a picture from a group chat I find little interest in anymore. I breeze past my friend’s stories as habit, not really paying attention to the content of their posts. I wonder why I wasn’t invited. I move on to Instagram, scroll for a moment, and find myself uninterested in the accounts that are now showing on my screen as I have already viewed all the posts Instagram thought I would like today. I then move on to YouTube in hopes that this hour, just as many hours before, might go by a bit faster if I break it up into ten-minute segments of recommended video viewing. I watch a video or two but soon I am bored. I go on tinder to see if any one new likes me today and wonder about why my past relationships didn’t work out. Facebook surely will have something exciting.
Nature Hour:
I decide I will ride my bike to nearby Lake Royal Park. I step outside of my house and first take a second to look at the family of white cats along with their two orange friends that live at the end of my street. I notice their delicate movement and patience as they sit in silence amongst each other. As I listen to the birds chirp and try to find where the sounds of coming from, I am reminded of my high school biology teacher who taught me to identify many of the native Virginia birds. Upon arriving at the park, I take a seat at my go to fishing spot on the lake. I watch ducks and geese swim in the water and take note of the colors and shapes and sizes of the trees in the backdrop. I reflect on time I’ve spent at this lake, how the first time I was brought there I was just a freshman, age 18 or 19. I think about my life and how it has changed over the past few years. I think about things that have come and things that have gone.
This exercise has made me really think about how much progress I may be missing out on because of free time spent on social media, video games, etc. I don’t think these things are necessarily bad, but I do feel like they inhibit my ability to reflect and think about the things that are and should be important to me. I found in comparing these two experiences that my thoughts and observances were much more fulfilling in a place where I could only be distracted by myself. There is peace in being distracted by your own thoughts, ideas, worries, and experiences. I can rarely find that with my distraction devices.