By Anonymous
In bed with my laptop, my phone, and a heated blanket. I like having background noise when I am doing other activities, so I put on the Simpsons. Something funny and does not require me to pay much attention. I use this time to scroll through Instagram and see what people are up to, occasionally stopping to watch a funny dog video. I use this time to relax after an especially long day of classes when I don’t want to think of any of my responsibilities. For one hour I endlessly scroll and intermittently look up to watch funny scenes in the show. It is nice to completely turn off your brain even for an hour.
I dislike the cold. I tend to avoid the outdoors in the winter because overall it makes me grumpy. For one hour I went outside with no devices to see how it goes. I sit in a backyard that is backed up to woods. I watch small birds hop from tree to tree and squirrels run around. It was nice for about 15 minutes and then I began to get cold and grumpy. I started thinking about all the other assignments I must complete and honestly it just made my anxiety spike. I kept trying to look for something interesting to focus on, but nothing came up. I began to walk around the backyard looking under rocks or pieces of wood but found nothing. After the hour was over, I was so excited to go inside.
After completing one hour inside and one hour outside I found that I was much more relaxed being inside. If it were warmer and I could go somewhere exciting I think my opinions would be different. In the spring when I go hiking or to the beach or pond, I am completely happy being with a friend and no devices. In the winter I am cold all the time and it puts me in a bad mood, so I don’t want to be outside for 10 minutes much less 60 minutes. I tend to need to be doing multiple things at one time, so not having a device is very unusual for me. I think most people now require multiple sources of entertainment feel fulfilled. So as we move into a world where everyone will need to be using their devices at any time we also must learn how to combine that with nature.