By: Piper Thacher
My one hour of media consumption consisted of a series of mindless thumb scrolls on my phone followed by an engaging video game that I was familiar with. To start off, I got comfortable in my bed after finishing my math class and opened my most used app … TikTok. I scrolled passed nearly a hundred videos and would occasionally send my mom one if it had a cute animal in it. There was a video I came across of an orphaned calf that was raised with a dog named Stella, and they created a neat bond. After that, I saved a few helpful videos I saw regarding book recommendations, skin care products, and how to make a yummy vegetarian alternative to a tuna sandwich. Following this, I messaged a few friends on snapchat about how Craig Robinson is coming to do a comedy show at George Mason. A news article about hurricane Ida led to me looking into the damage done and how Louisiana can recover. I knew that the New Orleans Saints had a game planned for the following week, so I looked up where the players will now be practicing at due to the weather. After around 35 minutes of phone use, I swapped to my computer and bought an old nostalgic video game called Dishonored. The game was on sale on the gaming library STEAM, so I installed then booted up the game. My character started in a boat, and I discovered that my name is Corvo, and I am a bodyguard to the Empress. I noticed how beautiful the art style of the game was, but also how the game seemed aged already. After a few minutes in the game, I become imprisoned for the murder of the Empress, however I was framed. I wake up in a prison and notice that there are some cute rats that were programmed in the game. The rats sat on the prison floor with me, and I thought it was adorable that the computer-generated rats would scratch their faces. I finished up my hour by breaking my way out of the prison while the government tries to find me.
For my hour of being outdoors, I chose to bring a small picnic to Burke Lane Park in Virginia. Around 11:00am I drove over to the local Wegmans and picked up some multigrain crackers, lemon dill hummus, ginger kombucha, and some strawberries. When I got to the park, I brought out my food and blankets and took a short walk to an open area with a good view of the lake. I have been to this area multiple times, so I knew I would not get distracted and could enjoy my alone time with nature. As I ate my snacks, I noticed that the roots of the trees were very exposed, and I’m surprised that I never tripped over them. There were a few squirrels that were surrounding a tree near me, and I watched one dig a small hole and hide a nut near a large root. I tried throwing a few broken pieces of my crackers, but it landed nowhere near the squirrels. I saw a man and a young kid fishing and thought that their matching crocs were very wholesome. After a while I decided to just lay down and relax for the last thirty minutes. However, as I laid on my back trying to enjoy my naturalistic environment, my brain continuously drifted back to what was going on within my phone. So, I ponder whether it is possible to truly experience a naturalistic environment nowadays. I kept thinking about possible school emails and what my friends were up to. There were a few ants that started to make their way on my blanket and seeing them walk around gave me something to watch.
At the end of the day, I felt more productive and fulfilled when I took a step back from my phone and experience nature in a more genuine way. Sometimes it is nice to sit in bed and scroll on my phone, but the excessive use of media consumption can be taxing on a person! Time flew by when I was immersed in my phone, yet it was harder to recall what I saw and did. When I was relaxing in a natural setting, I was able to think about my present situation and not speed through the day. Nevertheless, I think that there needs to be more of a balance between how we spend out hours. I would say that being in the 21st century requires us to stay up to date with technology, however living behind our phones rather than in the moment can be detrimental to society.