Isaac Jasper
In my one hour of media consumption I went to YouTube as I do not own subscriptions to cable or other service providers. I began to watch trending videos from Good Mythical Morning. They are trying foods in a sense of an alternative world, a strange distraction from reality but its trending for a reason. I begin to wonder the practical use of making a video of this nature aside from a disconnect from reality. The picture was Nutter Butters in the “real world” vs Nutter Udder in an alternate universe. This video has nearly one million views with nearly forty thousand likes or thumbs up. They clearly have a large demographic that loved this video. I learned that some people love random nonsensical content. I moved on to watching another random video from sports. ESPN is covering the upcoming super bowl and typing the name of ESPN and Tom Brady. The feed shows dozens of videos questioning Tom Brady’s age and career. Literally they’re making the same videos over and over with the same hosts and occasionally different guests. This made me think about how many people watch these same topics so often that they cater to making them the highlight when theres thousands of athletes. Our media is feeding into our behaviors and therefore they reflect what we want in mainstream then it falls off into the indite or obscure content.
In my one hour of personal time I spent it doing what I typically do with my free time. Before the snow came I went around my locations for photography. I do this often as a way to distress and appreciate the little things we don’t seem to pay any mind to. Covid was the catalyst to getting into wildlife photography but mostly birds as the area does have easy access to locate larger wildlife. The weather is cold and challenging to keep still for the wildlife to come my way but I enjoy the sounds of birds calling back and forth. I watch some cardinals chasing around the water but my ability to capture isn’t possible without startling those closest to me. I got a few good shots but my favorites are the birds who I got extremely close to. I find myself thinking about how birds process information and their limitations. Things are simple to us from their view but surely complex at the same time. It humbles me and allows me to feel satisfied that I could peel away from society to live in the wild, even if its just a moment.
These two chapters from Bill McKibben fortified views on media consumption from an experimental aspect. McKibben did a great job of jumping straight into the point of the book. The instant we consume media the instant it becomes a misuse of media’s initial intent. This reminds me of a book called How To Read by Mortimer Adler. This piece by Alder essential questions as we consume media are we truly learning processes or taking bits of information to misuse or not use at all. I took all of this infromation to heart as I have always found myself not wanting to participate into technology as much as my peers. I still value tradition of being with friends, being in the moment, and having genuine moments.
