Two Hours

Sam Arnone

Typical Sunday morning.  Get up, go down stairs, make some coffee.  My dog is lying on the floor, tail slamming against the wall because she is happy to see me.  I go and pet her.  One of my cats sees the dog getting attention, so now they need attention too.  Everybody has been greeted/petted, got my coffee, and now I am ready to go.

I start off with the hour of media.  First thing I do is go to YouTube and watch the newest episode of One Piece, a Japanese manga and anime series for those who do not know.  It is amazing that I can watch a show in a completely different language airing halfway across the world with English subtitles so that I can understand what the characters are saying.  At least I think.  Sometimes languages do not directly translate.  Next I looked up the scores to NBA games the other night.  The Wizards didn’t play so don’t really care.  Decided to look up the top 10 plays and see if there was anything spectacular.  Nothing too amazing, although Damien Lillard’s game winner was pretty crazy.  Next I decided to read some news from Reuters on my phone.  Only got 20 more minutes.  Vietnam’s General Secretary won a third term.  Farmers are protesting in New Delhi against recent agriculture laws.  Indian Prime Minister says protesters stormed the Red Fort.  More news about Gamestop and Reddit.  Covid vaccines look to not be nearly as effective against the South African variant.  Senate Republicans meeting with Biden to come up with a relief bill.  Myanmar military swears to not get involved in a coup (as of posting this that didn’t quite pan out).  Time is up!

Now for the hour in nature.  I decided to go for a short walk near a creek by my house to look for birds.  Birds are typically more active in the early morning, and I don’t want to be outside long as it is beginning to snow hard.  Not much action unfortunately.  A few calls but nothing else.  Maybe the birds know something I do not?  I decided to ditch the bird adventure and look around.  Not long after and I stumble upon some deer tracks in the snow.  Where was this deer going? Was it alone?  Did it know it was going to snow?  It made me think that animals and plants are receiving some type of information too.  That they too use it and process it in ways that are not like humans, but yet here they are.  Or did people know this at one point too? Do we still?  Or has it been altered?  I decided to walk a little further and enjoy the ambience before the hour was up and I turned back home.          

The interesting thing that I realized doing this assignment was the dichotomy between both information sources.  In the media hour, everything that there is to know was at my fingertips.  Yet what did I do besides watch a show, look up scores to a game, and read headlines and a couple paragraphs of news articles.  It was almost as if I was disinterested in anything just because it was there.  Meanwhile with the hour outdoors I actually thought and had questions.  There were things that I did wonder about and wanted to know.  I agree with McKibben’s premise of missing information, but I think it goes a little further than that.  I think that it is harder to process the information because new information proceeds immediately after.  Information is harder to retain.  Media sources should be used to facilitate natural sources.  However, I think that instead it has taken away from it and suppressed it. 

Kyle Ellingsen

While taking a break from homework, I sat down on the couch to watch some television. I scroll through the different streaming options deciding what service I want to choose. I do not own cable so streaming apps are my only option at television. Before I decide on what to watch I look down to my Iphone and get distracted by all the social media and apps. First I go through the Twitter, reading through all the posts I have not read in the last couple of hours. I move over to the News sections and see articles about Pete Buttigieg being confirmed as teh US Secretary of Treasury. After catching up on twitter, I swing over to Instagram to scroll through pictures that I didn’t see the night before. The media on here is mostly selfies, pictures/videos of people skiing/snowboarding, sketches from my tattoo artist and random advertisements like UPS. Seeing the tattoos from my artist brouight me into the Pinterest app and I was looking at new tattoo ideas for over thirty minutes. I then move into my finance apps that holds some stocks that I am keeping an eye on. Hoping that one day some of these cryptocurrencies will one day pay off. Once I go through looking at my applications, I log into HBO Max and watch The Little Things. One of my coworkers had talked to me about this movie and told me I should watch it. 

Spending my hour outside was a very peaceful one. It has been snowing over the last 24 hours and there is about five to six inches of snow on the ground. I decide to walk from my back yard out to the Occoquan river that is behind my house. As I walk into the woods, I see before me that no one has walked out here for awhile, leaving each step with a satisfying crunch. I can feel the cold on my nose and fingertips even though my hands are shoved into my hoody. I can here a faint chirping of a bird or two but don’t see any wildlife moving. As I make my way to the river, I can see the water moving so slowly with not much movement below. I take in the scene as snow has blanketed all the trees, shrubs and bushes in the area. I notice some cardinals (m/f) flying in the distance as they call out to each other. I can see some tracks in the embankments of what seems to be a rodent of somekind (opossum/raccoon).I can also hear the faint hum in the distance of what seems to be a plane landing. 

I would say one of the things that I learned most from this is that when we are inside we pay little attention to many things, but when we are in nature, we pay great attention to just a few small things. When I was outside, the calmness of the scene and monotone colors, left me feeling calm. When I was online, it felt like I was doing a bunch of menial tasks with no real reward. The feelings always persist with social media that if I do not check something, that I might be missing out on something. One major difference in the two settings was using most of my senses when I was outside. When I was outside I was smelling the air, listening to the sounds of the forest, feeling the cold on my skin, and watching different movements. When you are using media, you are really only satisfying yourself visually. 

Emily Stafford

One hour in my backyard

           One hour spent outside in the cold of a Virginia winter is one hour too long for me. The saving grace of this experience was the snow on the ground. The snow cover hides the ugly grass lawn and makes everything look so clean and fresh. My suburban backyard is only about one acre, but the neighboring church had some property that makes it appear larger. As I walked along the trees on the border of our property, wondering what I was going to do for a whole freezing hour, I noticed it had begun to snow again. This made me regret not grabbing a pair of gloves, but I was too lazy to go back inside and root through the contractor’s garbage bag full of winter apparel in the basement. Eventually, I sat down on the small patio facing the more natural looking part of my backyard, lined with pine trees that block the view of the church’s schoolyard. The snow looked very pretty on the pine trees and I considered walking up and shaking them just to watch all the snow fall off, but I decided I was too cold to move. You wouldn’t think it, but snow makes noise when it falls. It sounds kind of like rain, but a lot softer. Virginia winters are funny; one day might be beautiful and sunny with a high of 50˚, and the very next day could be near freezing with wind chills penetrating the same jacket worn as the day before. The rest of the time I was outside was spent mostly shivering and thinking about how much I would enjoy this assignment if it were spring or summer.

One hour on my laptop

It’s no wonder I spend so much time on my laptop these days: I avoid public areas out of precaution, I dislike cold weather, and much of my work is conducted online. The hour I spent browsing the internet was no different than any other given hour in the day. First, I watched a video titled “Rich people have bad taste” by Drew Gooden on YouTube. This was a new video, posted only a few hours before I clicked on it. The video title basically speaks for itself: Drew comedically critiques the houses of the absurdly rich, including some celebrities. I have to agree that people with ridiculous amounts of money purchase the worst furnishings (seemingly always some sort of artistic statement). Next, I decided to browse Twitter. A friend from high school who is an airline attendant hates her job, someone with a bright pink cartoon cat as their profile picture has a fat pet cat, an artist compares their art from six years ago to their art today, a link to a GoFundMe page for someone who lost their job, an advertisement for The New York Times, and so on for the rest of the hour. It’s really easy to get sucked into an endless scroll down a social media site when you’re bored.

Two hours of my time

            Overall, from this experience, I learned that I use senses other than sight more often when I am outside of media’s influence. I actually surprised myself with how much these two hours differed from each other. I didn’t notice at the time, but while writing I realized that almost all of the information I received outdoors came through multiple senses (touch, sight, and sound). Contrastingly, most of the information from my laptop was just seen. The hour spent outdoors also felt a lot longer than the hour spent at my laptop. I suspect this is because of my strong dislike of being cold and the normalcy of being on my laptop.

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. 

Anissa Thompson

During my hour of designated media consumption, I realized that this experiment of immersion was no different than normal. It really hit me particularly hard that during this Covid-plagued era, I personally have been living near 24/7 in an environment jam-packed with technology and disruptions from other people. Speaking of Covid, as I sit here on my laptop and listening to CNN I’m made aware of all of the new variants from around the world that have now made their way into the United States. Next, a clip of Dr. Fauci once again trying to explain to people that by taking the vaccine they will not only protect themselves but protect others by halting the alarming spread of new variants which will consequently result in another surge of cases if not taken seriously. I turn to MSNBC and am greeted by the changes in the White House revolving around climate change. I knew that a lot in this department had been going on but hadn’t really yet taken a good chunk of time to actually listen to the changes. I’m most excited to hear about conservation efforts for federal water and land being put in place after 4 years of seemingly nothing going on in that department along with the suspension of the Keystone pipeline. After few ads ranging from campaigns for charitable organizations and insurance companies, I decide it’s time for another change. I end up back at CNN where their own chief medical correspondent, Dr. Gupta, to reiterate the safety and importance of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson vaccines. I feel bad for these doctors working in public health just trying to better our society, they must feel so ignored. Now they know what it’s like to be a climate scientist. I also feel like I’ve been watching the same sad news for almost 11 whole months now. Inside it feels so hectic.

For my hour of receiving information from the outdoor naturalistic environment, I got as close as I could to a complete removal of myself from other people. I live near old town Alexandria so the best place I could go to with very little human disturbance. The location that I sat in for an hour was part of the Arlington National Cemetery and I’m not sure if this counts because they’re technically are people here, I just didn’t see any of them. The information that I’m receiving is that it’s quiet, cold, lightly snowing, and I only saw one small rodent quickly scurry up a large tree for a brief moment. After walking around all the other nearby cemeteries within the larger complex, there’s a huge increase in the new plots. Although there are no funeral services occurring now, I see somewhere around 50 freshly dug plots becoming lined at their bottoms with the falling snow, way more than there would usually be a year ago. For those who still believe that Covid isn’t real, I would hope that they have a different opinion after seeing what lies in the cemetery. At the very least, the outside is calm.

From these two hours of gathering information in different settings, I realized how repetitive the news we receive through media truly is if we are constantly surrounded by it. Seeing the uptick in Covid cases and deaths on the news seems as if it is part of our normality now but when walking outside and seeing the true effects without any human bias around it feels rawer than hearing updated numbers every day. Being in an environment that’s not disturbed by human input forces you to look at the deeper meaning behind what you’re seeing as there are no distractions to pull your mind away from what’s in front of you.

Lauren Nery

One hour of media consumption for me since I like to watch YouTube videos can go by fast. I watch one video and with the next one automatically playing, I tend to just watch it if I don’t have anything better to do (which is almost never true). I began this morning of teleworking with, of course, watching a video to make myself laugh before having to stare at a computer screen for even longer. The video I watched was about 15 minutes, and from there I finished the work I had to do in the morning, probably because I knew I needed to write this blog after and wanted to feel more responsible with my time. During my time to eat lunch, I went down to my kitchen and ate and watched probably about another 30-45 minutes of videos, one after the other. While I was watching the videos – comedy videos from channels like Cody Ko and Noel Miller – I was genuinely laughing out loud and thinking about their jokes now makes me smile a little bit. Was watching videos a productive use of my time though? Probably not. Did I gain any valuable information from watching their videos? Probably not.

I spent my hour outdoors this weekend at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. I enjoy coming here during the warmer months of the year, which made the walk with my boyfriend this weekend a little uncomfortable. The morning before we went to the state park, we got some flurries that did not make their appearance when we arrived. The hour long walk I took was enjoyable in the sense that I got the opportunity to get out of the house and spend some time walking familiar trails. However, when it was over (mostly due to the cold) personally I wasn’t devastated. Even with my hatred of the cold, I noticed that in the car on our way home my boyfriend and I were laughing about things that happened on our walk. Though I gained no literal information like the identification of plant species that we saw, I gained a silly memory that I’ll keep close to heart.

Documenting this experience taught me that thinking intentionally about my experiences using social media and spending time outdoors will better shape my beliefs about the two. I realized how much more I gained from an hour walking (and mostly goofing around) in freezing temperatures in comparison to my hour of comfortably watching videos designed to make me laugh. Though neither activity gave me cold, hard information, what I gathered from the experience taught me about how I could, and should, use my time.

Sean McDermott

The opening of Bill McKibben’s The Age of Misinformation (1992) described two worlds I know well.  At least one’s I have known.  He opens describing the TV options that he watched, all recorded from what was played in Fairfax County in 1990.  I grew up in Fairfax County.  I am also old enough that I have some memories of what the county was like then.  1990 was the year I started first grade so It’s safe to say that those memories aren’t all that strong, but they are enough that I related to many of the obscure references to George Mason University broadcasts and other things that Bill mentioned in book.

Fast forward to today and I can see the point that Bill was trying to make being even more important.  Having grown up a product of a TV driven society, I can now say that my cell phone has overtaken the TV in my life by far when it comes to how my life now operates. 

In the hour that I attempted to keep track of my plugged-in use I have lost track of the number of times I have glanced at my phone.  I checked Instagram more times than I’d like to admit, mostly pretty picture of outdoor places that I can day dream about mixed with pictures of people working out showing their successes but rarely their less glamourous moments.  And of course, mixed in that feed was a scattering of adds targeted to me based on all the data the app has on my habits. I looked at three different email accounts during the hour: two personal and one for school. I checked three different news apps: The Washington Post, NPR, and BBC.  When that cycle was completed, I seemed to instinctively restart the whole process as though there would be something so new in one of those apps that I needed to be aware of it now even though I had only been away foe a few minutes to check another app.  I sometimes congratulate myself on not being like my parents who watch TV most evenings, but all I seem to have done is exchange the large screen for a smaller pocket sized one.

After that hour I decides to leave my phone behind.  I put it into a drawer knowing that just having it in my pocket might change the experiences as I have often caught myself looking down at my phone even when I set out not to do so.  So, without my phone, I decided to leave the house.  I decided the best way to do this for this experiment was to take the dog on a long walk.  Despite it being cold and wet outside she was more than happy to join me.  I on the other-hand immediately seemed to take note of the damp coldness that was around me though not in a negative way.  Its January, so cold is very much an appropriate outdoor condition.  As my time was limited, I kept to my local neighborhood in Ashburn that is very similar to where I grew up in Fairfax.  It’s a busy area with rapidly growing urban sprawl.  A new shopping center is being built between Rt. & and where my house is located so throughout my walk, I can hear the sounds of the road and construction. Planes landing at Dulles airport annoying fly overhead every minute or so on approach to the runway.  The walk I took was one that is very familiar to me but today there was a light coating of snow and ice that aren’t normally there.  For my dog this seemed particularly interesting as she was exploring with more than her usual excitement to explore the outside world.  I couldn’t help but realize that to her this excitement is her normal state as she doesn’t spend any of her time mediated as I do.  Though here presence around me while I am doing such might be an interesting angle to look at. 

 When I have more time, I often like to take longer hikes to force myself away from distractions but it’s nice to know sometimes all it takes is a regular walk with the dog.  Of course, getting into nature is always a welcome adventure but sometimes just putting down the phone is enough to make notable changes.  Even in a very noisy suburban location there is still enough nature in the outside world for me to become refocused.  Generally other physical activity can have the same responses for me though intense exercise seems to be more a way to drown out thoughts rather than inspire new ones.  Being alone with my thoughts isn’t always where I want to be but it’s good to be there enough to remember why I’m always glad when I take some time to step away from the mediated life.

Lauren Peranio

Like most millennials I like to limit my social media intake. Recently I’ve dabbled in Pinterest, gambled in the over exposed world of Instagram and “hip” with the Gen. Z’s in TikTok. Still delightfully constrained in my own little world; I am an observer looking for ideas, a producer of art, an admirer of art. Fictious and symbolic creatures, androgynous glamor photography, dark elaborate décor, and old school tattoos fill my screen as I swipe for inspiration. Minutes on Instagram feel daunting. More sketches, more paintings, more inspiration; I think I need a break. Oh! Look a quote, “Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow” -Vincent van Gogh. Abstract, surrealism, impressionism, realism and mixed media construct the confines of my Pinterest boards or interests. While this visual simulation is pleasing this cannot be the only source of inspiration. Let’s take a walk.

I am trying to keep this as close to home and real as possible. Half a mile through my neighborhood in Stafford, VA I pass through a high school where I’d stop with a handful of cat food jumbling about in my jacket pocket and feed the cat colony that has taken over. Past the school parking lot behind the school, I come to a rocky trail surrounded by trees, fresh air and a slight drizzle. No one’s here. This is so calming and peaceful. Squirrels rustle about through the leaves, faded muffled dogs bark. This area has been well traveled by me, but I still feel a deep and great appreciation for everything that lives here and how this trail has come to be. Being outside has become very therapeutic allowing my mind to peacefully wonder and escape the due dates and the mundane labor of school or work demands. I am free here, to think, come up with ideas, inspiration, and develop deep admiration.

It depends how you utilizes and perceive social media whether is it something negative.  The same as goes for how you view the world whether you think the environment is important. I found that it was difficult to be on social media for an hour straight even though I use it for art purposes. Media can positively and negatively impact your view on major topics like climate change and it’s scary that it is still being debated about. I find it fascinating how people can say they believe or don’t believe something based on limited knowledge. I’d can only hope that more people would consider doing an experiment like this.