By Gustavo Rodriguez
For the first half of this exercise, I spent my time in the food court area of the Johnson Center. I put my earbuds in and watched/listened to a youtube video of renowned psychologist Jordan Peterson. As I listened to his perspective on many aspects of our society, I went on instagram and quickly got bored. I was inundated with ads and suggested accounts for things I was both interested and uninterested in. I looked around at my surroundings, and noticed the immense amount of people in the food court, walking around, waiting in line, student organizations with their tables, etc. Even with the earbuds in, I could still hear conversations around me, and the intense overall noise of a few hundred people being in the same area. As I approached being there for an hour, I was anxious and ready to leave, I needed some peace and quiet in order to focus and not feel overwhelmed. It was much harder to actually gain anything from the video I had been listening to.
For the second half of this exercise, I spent my time in a forest on the outskirts of my neighborhood. I approached the treeline, set a timer for an hour, put my phone on silent, and took my first step into the forest. I wanted to immerse myself fully for this hour, I let my thoughts wander the same way I was wandering through the forest, I let my eyes wander to view as many details as I could. I had nothing distracting me, and thus my thoughts were clear, I felt much more analytical of my surroundings, much more intuned because all I could do was be a part of nature for this hour. I noticed the finer details, I looked at the patterns of tree bark, the occasional chittering of squirrels, the songs of birds in trees, a rabbit family running to their burrow. These are small details that add to the overall bigger picture of nature, these finer details give that big picture an intricate and awe-inspiring beauty that is unmatched by anything unnatural. This time in nature gave me a greater appreciation for nature, from the small harder to notice things, to the things that are obvious. Disconnecting from technology, and immersing myself into the forest community, made it easier to focus, to feel serenity.
This expierience of both environments was very interesting. Both parts of the exercise were polar opposites, and I personally enjoyed my time in nature better. However, technology although distracting, is necessary at this point for humanity. I had a realization that I immerse myself too much in technology, and material and societal things, rather than also things of the natural world. I had a change in my perception, I need a balance between technology and nature. They both have their pros and cons, but if I can take from the pros of both, I think I could be a more efficient person in the things I want to work towards and achieve, as well as a better overall quality of life.