By Katheryne Grundy
Today I will be doing the same experiment Bill McKibben did of one hour of consuming media and one hour of being in a natural environment with little to no use of technology. McKibben explained his experience in his book, The Age of Missing Information. For my hour of consuming media, I decided to be on TikTok because I go there when I want a laugh. I saw a video of dogs being dogs and another of a Dunkin Donuts worker explaining his experience with a rude customer. I was able to relate with the Dunkin Donuts worker because I work at a restaurant, and I have similar experiences with rude customers. I also learned a new word, dolonia. Dolonia is the fear felt when people genuinely like you. But the last 10 minutes I went to my mailbox to check out ‘theSkimm’. It’s an email subscription and it explains the main news in the simplest way, and they explain it neutrally by just giving facts not opinions. It’s about how the US death row is being dismantled. The California governor is planning to put an end to California’s death row. At the end of my hour of media consumption, I wasn’t surprised that time went by fast.
I was heading to Lake Accotink Park in Springfield, VA. When I got there, I put a timer for one hour on my phone. I placed my phone in my pocket and started walking on the trail. There was a large body of water in the middle as I walked around it. I noticed on the edge of the lake there was a bit of trash. It was disappointing to see litter in the water. As I continued walking on the trail, I stopped at one of the information boards. It explained that Lake Accotink Park is in a watershed and that it receives anything from higher grounds; this explains why it has litter. As I continued to walk by, I noticed other people walking with someone, a person running, and another riding their bike. It’s nice to see people go to parks to unwind and get away from the busy, noisy cities. I heard some birds chirping and a few squirrels running around. When the timer went off, I turned around to head back to the parking lot. As I was leaving, a few more people came to the park.
This small test was fun, but it didn’t really teach me anything because I’ve experienced both things. But it mostly just reminded me to step outside when I need a break instead of being on my phone. I guess that might have been the point of this test is to remind people to go outside when you need to unwind. Humanity is too busy catching up in the fast-paced world that we forget to take a meaningful breather. When I take a break, I go on my phone which I’ve noticed doesn’t feel like I took a break. When I spent an hour in a natural setting, I felt energized when I got home. I felt better like I wanted to keep moving. So, I actually started doing things on my to-do list that I kept postponing like cleaning my room.