By Anonymous
For my hour in a mediated environment, I watched YouTube and used Instagram for an hour. When using social media that does not have sound associated, I put music on before going back to scrolling. On YouTube, I watched various video. I watched some hair style tutorials and videos of hairdressers doing cool looking haircuts or dye patterns. I watched some videos of someone decorating cakes. I did not gain much from most of the videos, however I did watch a few that I feel taught me a new skill or way of doing something. Besides those, I watched some other random videos and then switched to Instagram. Some of the pictures on social media were of beautiful landscapes or national parks, which I regularly look through and found a bit ironic since I was sitting on my couch with so many beautiful parks nearby. After spending an hour on my phone, I usually feel a little bit melancholy as I feel that I could have used my time in a more productive way.
For my hour in an outdoor environment, I went to Burke Lake Park and walked on the path around the lake. It was very cold, and most of the lake was frozen. There were deer tracks on the frozen lake, and some were fairly far from the shore. I also saw two types of woodpeckers, a pileated woodpecker and a downy woodpecker. There were lots of people walking, running, or biking despite the bitter cold.
After completing this assignment, I realized that I usually have music or a podcast playing, which is not a bad thing in itself, but I also feel that I have lost the ability to comfortably sit in silence. I definitely feel an information overload. When watching tutorials, there are often so many ways to do something that I don’t commit to one. I just watch several that are different and then can’t remember any of them. I noticed that I gravitate away from videos that are over five minutes long, and I feel that our fast-paced culture has made our attention spans much shorter. Even though it is sometimes a hassle to get outside, I am always glad and feel better after being outside.