Two Hours

By: Eden Anderson

Following a long day at my very taxing office job sitting at a desk, my evening can be broken up into four parts. Walking my dogs, cooking and eating, homework, and media consumption. After getting home and changing from business casual to sweats, my dogs, who have been following me around since I got home, see me put on socks and get very excited. They know what’s about to happen….a W A L K.  

I’m lucky to have a trail across the street from my house that we can walk on every day. On weekdays I usually only walk them on the forked path for 30 minutes, but today, I walk past it; luckily, the portion of the trail I walk on the weekends takes the prescribed amount of time of an hour. Usually, during my daily dog walk alone in the woods, I listen to my favorite true crime podcasts about murder, but today I leave my air pods at home per the assignment description. Hamlet, Lizzie, and I get into our normal rhythms, both walking alongside each other and me monitoring for any other dogs coming our way as I appreciate the forrests beauty. It rained the night before, so the forest landscape looks different than the day before. Even though it can get muddy, I’m always excited to see how much the forest landscape has changed after a storm, whether any branches or trees fall, how high the creek raised, etc. But Hamlet, my hound dog, gets excited about the post-rain new smells. I watch as he stops every few minutes to smell the air or something on the ground, Lizzie gets very annoyed, but I don’t mind as it gives me a chance to smell the clean, fresh air as well. A tree that has been dead and leaning in a concerning way for a while now fell during the night. Lizzie, who is young and athletic, jumps over it while Hamlet wiggles his way underneath. After I carefully climb over it, I notice that my dogs are still and staring in the same direction; I look over and meet the eyes of a mother deer and her two fawns. Our two groups stare at each other in shock at how close we are to each other; they don’t break until we both remember to be worried—her for her kids and me for my dog’s inclination to run and bark after deer. I quickly pull my dogs away as they bark and hear the deer running in the other direction. The rest of our walk is calm and peaceful, and after we cross a creek muddied by a storm, we turn and head home.

After dinner and homework, I finally get some time with the dirty little minx of an app Tiktok.

With very little thought, I choose it to be my media of choice for the next hour. It was the obvious choice as it is my go-to when I don’t know what I want to do, and so happens to also be the greatest media time suck I’ve ever seen. I assume the position; Tucked into bed, I lay on my side in a fetal position and open my phone and let Tiktoks infamous algorithm do its work.

It really knows me because the first video on my for you page (FYP) is a cheesemonger explaining how the rind on my favorite thing, cheese, is formed and how it affects its overall flavor. As I swipe up, my FYP is filled with New Girl TV bloopers, floods caused by Ida, pet seagulls, Blackhead removals, Dog training, shedding reptiles, booktok recommendations, raccoon daycare, frogs being dramatic, and cats being evil and cute at the same time. For some unknown reason, the Tiktok algorithm thinks I have Curly hair when I have VERY straight hair, so I keep skipping videos about that. I share with my friend a suburu floating during a tornado (she has a Subaru); I like a video explaining that the infamous Pilot G2 pen is inferior to another as a reminder for later. My hour is finished up by going down a hole of satisfying horse hoove trimming videos. I close the app after I watch one my friend sent me

– “hey do you want some water” “yes” *Pouring* “that’s enough” *Still pouring* “that’s enough” “When will I be enough…?”

This experience made me look at what I do to relax and how much I need both to be outside and to escape into media to so at the end of the day. I also realized that I like sharing these experiences with the people I care about. I couldn’t wait to share my experience with the deers with my mom when I got home, and while I was relaxing watching Tiktok, my best friend and I were sharing videos we thought the other would appreciate. Both nature and media have made me who I am and continue to shape me, and I like that about myself. 

By: Anonymous

One Hour in Nature:

The first thing I noticed while walking around Burke Lake Park was all of the fungi.  One of the recurring species, a small gold kind that looked like fallen popcorn or small piles of treasure, routinely popped up on the trail, and it felt like I was on a strange treasure hunt where the prize was scattered along the way.  After a while I stopped to sit by the lake, and focused first on the fish I could see…some small ones barely an inch long, and some slightly rounder fish as well.  Some of the small fish started to exhibit a “flashing” behavior, and I recalled something I’d learned about in a lecture about parasite host manipulation, and wondered briefly if these individuals were infected (and now at the command of some free-loading roommates), or just doing that on their own.  I started to look around a bit more after that, and was surprised to see only a couple of ducks on the water at the time, all the way across the lake.  Their only company was a handful of kayakers, some of whom were fishing, while another small group appeared to be a teacher of some sort with a couple of students.   I thought about that direct juxtaposition of simply taking from an environment versus learning from it, and then a splash to my left surprised me, and I wondered if it was a kayaker hidden by some trees, or some animals, which I was more interested in seeing. In peering through the plants obstructing my view of the splash, I started to see more bugs I hadn’t focused on as much earlier –a couple bees, a hornet, and a few dragonflies, all contributing to a rather noticeable buzz now that I was listening for it. I looked back out at the lake again, now hearing more bird calls and hoping to see some, and I saw a duck fly past the other couple still in the water from earlier.  Soon after, a very small bird with a large head caught my attention, and I wished for the millionth time that I was better at bird identification. 

One Hour Consuming Media:

I started my hour of media consumption on the Snapchat discover page, and immediately saw a video of a deer that ran over the edge of a waterfall (it survived and swam away just fine!). I went online and googled the video to learn a bit more, and ended up reading a small article on a site called “Whiskey Riff” to learn that the waterfall was 50 feet high and located in Michigan, at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.  I then went to the Microsoft News page on my computer to scroll through the news articles and see if any caught my eye.  I clicked on one from ABC News relaying that the school boards in Alachua county and Broward county would have their salaries held back by the state of Florida because the counties had implemented mask mandates for their schools. The article went on to mention the ongoing debate about Governor Ron DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic, as well as some of the other actions he has suggested he is considering.  After reading that story, I went back to the Microsoft News Page and clicked on another article from Reuters.com about blue crabs and the impacts they’ve had as an invasive species in the Mediterranean. The article discussed the impact of this invasion as it particularly affects France, where blue crabs have little commercial value and actively destroy the market for other species in the same habitat, such as eels and mussels. 

What I Learned:

Going into this assignment, I expected to feel tired after completing the media consumption portion and more energized after completing the nature portion.  Additionally, after reading McKibben’s work, I expected to feel like I learned more in the natural setting than in the hour of media consumption, given how overwhelming the latter can be.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of my initial assumptions were incorrect ㅡ the hour spent on different media sources was less difficult than I thought it would feel.  I think knowing that I wanted to focus and find specific stories of interest to read during this assignment helped me engage with the media in a less overstimulating way than just scrolling mindlessly through endless social media posts, and that made this part of the assignment more enjoyable to me than I thought it would be.  On the other hand, I fully expected to feel rejuvenated and reconnected during and after the hour spent out at Burke Lake Park, and I was pleased that this expectation was met.  It was nice to be able to think about the organisms that I saw in a strictly observational way, without the immediate ability to look up things about them and get distracted from the beauty of the walk itself. Overall, I was glad that I was able to walk away from both parts of this assignment feeling like I gained something, whether it be feeling peaceful and grounded after my time outside or learning about events of significance. 

By: Malia Stephens

This past Friday afternoon I spent over an hour staring directly at my phone. I was seated in front of the TV where my sister was watching one of her favorite shows (Chopped). I was seated next to her on the couch mindlessly scrolling. I switched from apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter for over an hour. My mind was both overstimulated and completely numb. I was unable to focus on anything and was switching apps every five minutes or so because my brain could not decide what to focus on. After 30 minutes my head started to pound and after an hour my eyes began to sting. When I finally looked away and put my phone down I was extremely uncomfortable. I had a headache, my eyes were itchy, and I was nauseous. The itchy eyes faded within an hour or two, but my headache persisted until late in the evening. My experience with my ‘one hour of technology’ is in stark contrast with my hour of time spent with  nature. 

On a warm and wet Sunday afternoon I took a long walk with my dog through the forest filled park near my house (Four Mile Run Park). We first took the paved path through the park and then took a little adventure off of the trail. During the first 15 minutes of our walk I was a bit jittery. I was missing my phone and the music that I would have been listening to as I took this walk. But fairly soon after I began to appreciate the lack of technology and the sounds of the forest that I was able to hear. Once I began to truly appreciate and enjoy my walk I felt my head begin to clear and all of the stress from the previous week melt away. The mild headache that I persisted for the entire weekend finally broke and my head was no longer throbbing. My breathing became easier, steadier, and slower as I relaxed. Koda (my dog) and I eventually found a small clearing where you could sit on the grass and enjoy the sunshine and the sounds of the forest. Kota had a fantastic time sniffing around and playing with sticks and I realize that for the first time in a while I was experiencing pure joy from something that didn’t come for my screen. I can express how grateful I am for this assignment. I had forgotten how enjoyable it is to just exist outside. I am definitely doing this every weekend. 

Both of my experiences changed my perspective and headspace. Both my hour with tech and my hour with nature allowed me to change how I view the world and the events that I was dealing with during each day. My hour with tech caused me to have a more negative and irritable reaction to the events and stresses during the rest of my Friday. My hour with nature allowed me to relax and handle the stresses that came with my Sunday afternoon. Overall my experience with nature was far more enjoyable and allowed me to be vastly more productive for the rest of my day. 

By: Tessa Shelton

Instagram has turned into a black hole of demands, improvements, and picture perfect lives. One hour of scrolling seems like minutes as I read the not-so-helpful information. 

Summer wedding, the best decision I ever made. Become a digital designer online in 24 weeks. Peter said Benny looks like Toad today. A caption accompanying a picture of a smiling boy in a little tykes car. Bunnies eating lettuce in the living room. Apply now for our immersive spring 2022 residential semester away programs. Why dumbbells don’t make sense in 2021. Our favorite car finds. One-of-a-kind storage sectional for all your one-of-a-kind stuff. September challenge: Wake up at 5am, 2-3 hours of deep work daily, cut out junk food, read 2 books this month, learn a new skill. 

It was hot. Likely 90 degrees this Saturday in the Shenandoah National Park. I wasn’t bothered by the heat because the trails promised waterfalls and pools to cool off in. At the entrance of the trail there were two signs: “Caution! There are venomous snakes living in the area” and “Watch for ground nesting yellow jackets”. Walking up the mountain I heard cicadas, rushing water, and my footsteps in the dirt. Gazing around the middle of the woods, at first there seemed to be nothing of interest. Looking closer I saw burrows under tree roots and the leaves partnering with the sun to create a kind of stained glass roof over me. Centipedes moved slowly in my pathway, likely trying to run from the giant feet. The high humidity had me sweating more than I could have ever imagined. When I stopped at a pool above one waterfall, I saw tiny centipedes roaming around in the moss which made me think: do centipedes breathe underwater? I wanted to know very badly but I didn’t have cell service and I don’t carry around an encyclopedia of life questions. This question made me spiral down a black hole of curiosity. 

The difference between instagram’s black hole of information and my mind’s black hole inspired by nature is the feeling behind them. When I fall into the trap of instagram I am thinking about many things at one time. I think about all of the topics and experiences it is presenting as well as what I should be doing instead of scrolling. This causes mild to high anxiety and easily becomes overwhelming. The black hole of questions that I experienced in nature was energy giving. I got excited about all of the potential answers to my questions. I let my mind run free as I came up with my own explanations to these questions. It was a fulfilling and pleasant experience. 

By: Anonymous

Virginia has been my home for about 15 years, and in that time, I have familiarized myself with the outside, with the smells of the misty mornings, the sunny afternoons, and rainy evenings. I don’t go outside as often as I did when I was younger, when I had the energy to stay outdoors. I figured this assignment wasn’t going to add or change my perspective much. Obviously, I was wrong.

I can’t say much about my time spent in the “mediated environment,” since most of my free time is spent there anyway. In recent years, I’ve found myself to be a bit of an escapist. I use this comfortable place, the mediated place, to ignore stress, to dive into a headspace that allows me to step completely away from my friends, from drama, responsibility, homework, or chores. If you’ve ever considered yourself a “binge-watcher” you might have found yourself in a similar situation, that finding out which Salvatore brother Elana chooses is way more fun than writing a paper about net neutrality. After all, college is a scary place that flips between having everything due and nothing to do, constantly.  So, the first hour in mediation was spent on the switch as I tried to unlock all of the vehicles and customizations on Mario Kart 8 which stretched out for longer than it was originally planned to. An extra hour was spent on Youtube, where I learned about the fall of Vine star, Gabbie Hannah, about how Kameron Michaels won the lip sync battle and puled the lipstick with Eureka’s name, and sent her home on Rue Paul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6. I saw how Gossip Girl definitely wasn’t feminist, and how Bo Burnham’s “inside” is a great example of white liberal performance art.

I started my hour spent outside with “wow its hot, I’m sweaty, I’m bored, I’m hungry.” No distractions, no music, no Youtube, no Nintendo, just me on a bench with nothing to do. So practically speaking, all there was to do was look. I was in the middle section by Hampton roads with the volleyball court. At first, I skimmed, then looked, then stared, and then I thought, contemplated, and wondered. These trees don’t look to be that old. There are a few trees by Krug hall that are fat and wide, those must be old, but the ones by me, the ones by this path, they’re tall but thin. So, if I were one of the older trees, what would I have seen before the existence of these thinner ones. What was here before campus was built? And by that way of thinking, who was here hundreds of years ago, has someone stepped exactly where I have in recorded history? What about before then? I remember months ago I saw this tiktok about how you could text this number with your area code and it will text back the name of the tribe that used to inhabit the space before they were forcibly removed, where you now live. From Williamsburg, there were the Kiskiack. I remember thinking how sad and dastardly it was that the golf course nearby is named after that tribe, the symbol on the sign even has what I’m assuming is a native man in a headdress and a spear, basking in sunlight. So, at this point, roughly 7 minutes have passed, and I’ve still got 53 more to go. I took a walk to the staircase that connects the Johnson center to the Concert hall. Here, trees hang over top of you and forms a natural tunnel. Around the corner, there’s a singular tree in a patch of wild looking purple flowers angled down like funnel towards a drain. I stood by the drain and looked up. The scene seemed almost magical, like Disney would have made a short film about a sleeping woman that turned into a plant. I spent the rest of the time watching students on their way to class, watching groups of friends, couples, how they were dressed, how much noise they made, if they were on their phone. People watching is an activity I engage with often at GMU.

Overall, the quantifiable amount of thinking I did in both environments was the same. Admittedly, however, one of the environments put words in my head to stitch together thoughts created by another person. I played a game someone else designed and watched videos someone else filmed. The other environment gave me the space to speculate, observe, or do absolutely nothing at all. Any and everything I thought about was mine, it came from me, and it went only to me. This experiment brought me to a few conclusions. One, that I waste entirely too much time on my phone if days seem to go by as fast as I thought they did. Two, that I could learn a lot about woman’s fashion just by looking around me because the styles found at Mason are strikingly unique. And three, that I need to create more mental spaces for myself that allow me to deal with my daily tasks and not avoid them. The natural environment opened me and gave me the calm I needed to self-reflect. There’s a saying on the internet if you’re doing something strange or pointless, you need to “touch grass,” which means to get fresh air and back in touch with how the world works. If youre told to touch grass its because youve been online way to long and need to familiarize yourself with something more still and natural. Getting back in touch with nature is an incredibly useful tool to find clarity and peace, so effective and useful it seems, it’s become a meme.  This is a lesson im going to take with me for the remainder of my time as a student, then an employed person, then a caretaker. As ridiculous as it sounds, I went outside, I touched grass, and it genuinely helped.

By: Andrew Ettestad 

Wednesday at work, rain comes and goes keeping in-store traffic very low.  It was a slow day, like many during the week. The store is darker than usual—kind of like it like this, easy on the eyes. The environment can be overwhelming, TVs playing ads, soundbars playing their demos, and the store speaker playing Todo De Ti for the fourth time today. 
I checked my watch 1330, damn only an hour and a half into my shift, time to put in an earbud. OH, one of the people I follow put out a new podcast today lets listen in. Well, look at that; I managed to forget to check my snap and see what I have missed since last night. First Snap was a streak snap, not meaningful. Second snap, there was a party last night, and I missed that!? I guess it was for the better. Oh geez, I was just tagged in a post on Instagram. Let me check it out. Damn, I missed tapping on the notification. It’s OK; back out to the home screen and open Instagram not that hard. Olight is having an end of august sale, and their new product is 40% off! Bookmark for later. Let’s see this post. OH, it’s another giveaway for a bottle opener. That’s kind of cool. It’s Bender from Futurama as a bottle opener. Let me see what else does he make. Cool, he has more styles of the same bottle opener with their unique design. This one glows! How much does this go for? $280! God damn! 

Wait, hold up. New York is mandating that every employee in the state are forced to get the covid vaccine or face getting laid off regardless of medical exemptions. I’m not too fond of that. Politics and government are saying you should take something; knowing nothing about your health bothers me. Let me read into this. Hmm, it’s true. The health commissioner for New York seems to be on the fence about this. He advocates getting the shot but wants New Yorkers to consult with their healthcare provider about whether an additional dose is appropriate for them that I can agree with, talking to your doctor. 
Another snap, that’s right, I have a few snaps to look at. Oh, I need to send that streak back, too, I forgot. Sent a streak photo, done, let’s check the rest. I missed out on a poker night, missed out on going to the pool with roommates, and this one is a TikTok; let me tap through it.

A coworker texted me what time I’m getting lunch and what I was feeling. Hmm, not sure let’s see what’s nearby; let’s open yelp. Takeout, no mall food, nothing American, chick-fil-a had recently, no I don’t want chain restaurants. Vietnamese sounds excellent and refreshing, and it just opened this month, and it’s a dine-in the only nevermind. Kabobs sound good, and I know that I can carry them out. What time should I eat? It is only a quarter after two. Yelp says it would take 30-45 mins for the food to be ready. Guess let’s submit an order wait. Close some apps and let me clear the notifications on my screen. Emails, bye, Facebook, bye, Reddit, bye, Instagram, bye, USAA, bye, Netflix, bye, best buy, buy, message on offer up. Let me see what it says. How did I miss this? Mark has made a request of $250 on an item I am selling for $450. No, let me see $380 if he bits. Nope, but it came up some more as expected. OK, $330 fine offer with a demo. Aye, I agreed to it with a meet-up date for tomorrow morning, sweet! Yelp notification just popped up saying our food is ready. It was a little after 1430; it must be slow for them as well. Food was made and prepared faster than the estimated time from yelp. Let me get ready then to go on break. I turned off the radio and took my earpiece off, and I can hear the world around me again. the rain on the roof, and someone has let Mike have aux to the store and is now playing techno. A good time to leave for lunch in my book.

0600, it’s morning time; I set up my encampment along Mason pond in the trees. The air is heavy, cold, and damp. Perfect. The Cloud deck is low today, and the smell of rain is in the air. I’ve set up my hammock and topped it with a tarp so my stuff and I can stay dry. I was thinking to myself; it’s a perfect spot. I have the sound of the fountain, the smell of the fresh-ish air. I can hear the birds calling out and the squirrels rustling about the trees. And to think an hour of this. No music, No media, No talking, No cars, No machinery noises, just peace, and quiet. I hopped up into my hammock and swung back forth. Hearing the straps tighten from my weight and the movement of the hammock. I can listen to the wood in the trees pop from rocking. No, I didn’t fall out of the trees; it’s just the hammock and the trees taking on a new and sudden load. Sitting still or still just slightly rocking, the squirrels got comfortable and started to walk around. I had a few walked under me, and one even climbed the tree I was strapped to. 

After lying there listening to my surroundings, I occasionally heard people walk by and talk about the hammock. I heard this bird call out of the blue. Well, it was more of an owl hooting. My favorite animal is the great horned owl, and it was close, like very close. However, this was the only time I heard him as the rain probably drove him off. However, it was nice to listen to light rain hitting the tarp.

After some time, I heard a woodpecker pecking behind me somewhere. I’m not too sure where. I wished I had my camera with me for this but next time. I believed it was a Red-bellied Woodpecker just knowing that they are common in this area and somewhat hard to spot minus their red cap on their head.

What I learned from this experience was the passage of time and my experiences with tasking. With media, I was easily distracted while focused. A simple ping would snap you out of it. I listened to a podcast but ignored it. I only paid attention to it transitioning between apps on the phone. You are also engulfed into this world of just irrelevant information or blog area of bragging of what you have done with your life. The passage of time seemed to go by slow on a low day at work, making an hour seem like two to three hours long. 

The second hour of this exercise was done the next day after the previous passage. I planned to hammock outside for a while before classes started so I could enjoy the quiet on campus before it got busy. I figured this would be an excellent time to takes notes on this. I was relaxing, and time seemed to slip away, and nothing in the world mattered. I can say that I wasn’t worried about anything for once. I was excellent for the three hours I spent out there. I wasn’t stressed. The lesson learned is that it’s better not to be on your device, and experiencing nature for what it is and not through a phone is an enjoyable experience. For me, I am mostly outside and not glued to my phone. I like to explore and get out there. I’m not too fond of all the drama and the stresses that come with social media.

By: Helene Pinto

Lately, I have been listening to political commentary on YouTube and podcasts about the oceans, women’s empowerment movements, and creepy world history, rather than scrolling endlessly through Instagram and Facebook ( I am old, I know). I spent (much longer than) an hour on social media, this week. I started by listening to Hasan Piker’s political reactions on YouTube, while I folded my laundry and put it away. Then, I took my phone to the bathroom with me and scrolled through Facebook marketplace looking for a bar for my new condo. No luck. I moved onto Snapchat and Instagram to watch some friends’ stories and catch up with the handful of friends I talk to regularly. Next, I took a shower and played Bob’s Burger’s while I was in there. Waterproof phones are a much-appreciated technological innovation. I’ve seen every episode at least a dozen times so I don’t really need to pay attention. I washed up while internally giggling at Louise’s antics and Gene’s witty banter. I finished and dried off and started making dinner. I wore my Airpods while I cooked and made some chicken parmesan. My hour was up, but I kept on listening to my phone. I (half) jokingly explain why I am always listening to something by saying I am avoiding being alone with my thoughts. I’m sure it’s true.

The next afternoon, after a filling lunch of leftover chicken parm, I drove to Great Falls National Park. I brought with me a water bottle, a mask, and my sunglasses. I regretted not grabbing my hat from the trunk. I purposely left my phone in the center console because I knew it would be easy to get distracted and want to take pictures of the views! I am not someone who takes tons of pictures, and often have no tangible evidence of a memory. My Tinder bio is longing for a picture of me holding a fish or standing at the top of a hill. I took off on a familiar trail since I didn’t have my phone and didn’t want to risk getting lost or injured. I took a gravel path toward the overlooks. It was incredibly hot and sunny, and the weather made the splashing water look that much more enticing. The view was gorgeous, as the sun was starting to lower a bit and reflected off of the river and rocks so beautifully. I veered off the path a bit and climbed down a few boulders, and over a few logs to reach this little cove-type opening closer to the water. You can sit there and snap some great pictures. Obviously, I couldn’t do that. Instead I laid my sun-shirt down on the rock and laid on top of it. I closed my eyes and let the heat from the sun wash over me, and I listened to the rushing water and the chirping birds, and the buzzing of the flying insects that refused to leave me alone. It was almost serene, had those bugs left my ears and nose alone. I remembered all the fun memories I’ve made exploring Virginia. I grew up in Florida, and while I love the ocean and the culture and palms of the beach town, I appreciate the very different experiences I’ve had here. The fact that waterfalls can exist on a non-flat surface, the experience of a beautiful spring following a dismal winter, and the crunch of dried leaves as summer passes into autumn is a completely foreign experience for me. I laid there until the rock got too hot and gave me a headache. It was time to head back. I would have loved to stay longer but it was way too hot, and I hadn’t brought a hat or sunscreen to reapply.

These two hours were vastly different. One was spent in my cool, air-conditioned home. I learned about the world around me while I did some chores and escaped my reality for a bit. The second hour also taught me about the world around me and let me escape reality as well. Only, in nature I was enjoying the positives of my reality, and not completely avoiding it. We can learn a lot from any experience, if we are open to it. I think I preferred the hour outside more than the hour on my phone. I like the global connection I get from the internet, but the connection to Earth is a more wholesome one.