I took the first hour of time to look through Facebook for the first time in years. Most of what I saw was sensational clickbait and crazy stories, but some of the posts that I saw scrolling down was genuine news (from what I was able to cross-reference). Posts about hurricane Dorian were common. Some were asking for support while others were simply stating how bad it will be. Other stories included things happening in the movie world related to the debate between Disney and Sony regarding Spiderman, and where Marvel plans to take their IP. Although for a long time I have preferred getting my info from places like Reddit, or from the actual news site, like with NPR and Washington Times. I now have a better understanding of why people prefer things like Facebook to get all of their info.
The next thing I did was take an hour to spend in nature. Specifically in a park/walking path area beside a lake in Merrifield. Although there was some noise from cars and people in the distance, I was able to take in most of what nature had to offer. The noises of rustling trees, shifting water, wind, and various animals in the area were all around. It personally was a nice break from the stresses of the busy, fast-paced world outside that little nook.
All of this really made me understand the stark difference between where humans came from and where they are now. Nowadays, it feels like you can not turn off the noise of cars, construction, advertisements, etc. But then I realized that there will always be noise, whether that be artificial or natural. They are two sides of the same coin and neither of which we can truly run away from.
The first part of this assignment came uncomfortably easy for me. I spend most of my day on social media or in YouTube wormholes, with the only breaks coming from sleep or driving. I am thoroughly addicted to my phone. I spent about a half hour on Facebook and saw the usual. I am a very political person, but I made a promise to myself that I would not argue with strangers anymore, for my own sanity. So I scroll past articles on how Trump is siphoning military school funds to pay for his dumb wall, how Wilbur Ross is threatening to fire people who report about Hurricane Dorian, and another environmental regulation that’s being gutted so that oil companies can drill on public lands. After I get throughly hopeless, I go to youtube, which you could argue is social media at this point. I rewatch the Eagles Redskins highlights, and then I watch a video a new guitar instruction page I found about Slash licks in G major.
Then it was time to go into nature. I was down in Richmond for the weekend visiting friends and we decided to go down to Texas Beach, a small little beach cove on the James river. I split off from my group so I could really immerse myself. I’m walking along the path and saw so much wildlife. Birds, frogs, spiders, a snake that darted across the path right in front of me, and even spotted a praying mantis. I found a secluded spot to lay down and closed my eyes for a minute. The rustle of the trees from the wind, the rough water as it crashes over the rocks, I thought about how ships used to crash on those rocks and sink. I also thought about how long it had been since I’d done this, I used to go hiking all the time, but stopped because of work, school, and loss of energy and motivation to do anything but sleep and practice guitar in my downtime. I felt like the stress and built up trauma of the last few years slowly leech out of me with every breath. My chronic headaches went away in minutes, my vision felt sharper, and my body felt ten pounds lighter. It was like therapy without having to talk to anyone, and it was free.
When you’re in the middle of the hustle and bustle of life, you start to believe that our modern way of life is the best way to live. When you get out into nature, you start to realize that thinking is wrong. We call people who live in the woods or in nature hippies, rednecks, bums, etc, but you start to wonder who’s got it right, or more importantly, who’s happier? The people who are constantly moving and stimulated, or the people who can just lay on a beach sometime and just do nothing?
My first hour will be playing a game called Stardew Valley (on a Nintendo Switch). This is a very easy-going game; where your character farms, mines and interacts with the local “town”. This game is so easy-going in fact, that you don’t even really need to meet any goals or really do ~anything~ other than be the little character and roam about. It is a very calming game, and gets me away from the very busy life that I have. I played for probably longer than an hour, as an in game “day” lasts about 15 minutes, roughly, and I played quite a few days. I was able to build a coop on my farm to house some chickens, and I also got married in the game. (Seriously, the game sounds odd, but it’s super fun). Indulging in this media takes little to no effort, and I sit on my bed, in my dorm room most of the times that I’m able to play it. I also only let myself play once I’ve finished all of the real world productive things I need to get done (like homework, cleaning and exercising).
My hour in nature was spent at Burke Lake Park, in Fairfax, about 15 minutes from campus. I walk here about once or twice a week, but normally I’m able to go with my roommate or I listen to a podcast while I’m strolling. Today, for this assignment, I walked around the trail for a little over an hour, just because that’s how my pace is. In an effort to not use any technology, I did not get a lot of photos, except one. (included) I take this trail often, so I’m used to it’s turns and elevation changes, but it was strangely more calming than it normally is. I believe that the difference in walking the trail without any media drastically changed my experience with it. I always knew that the park was beautiful, which is why I’m such a frequent guest, but it just seemed more beautiful and inviting this hour. Maybe this is the placebo effect because I went knowing I needed to “take it all in”, but it was an overwhelmingly nice experience walking without any music, podcast or conversation. Although, it was incredibly hot and humid outside, and I became stressed not being at my dorm because I was thinking about the work I need to get done, even though this is part of my daily exercise.
Even though my “media” consumption is of a very low stress game, I know in my heart that being outdoors is better for my overall wellbeing. As someone who works almost full time and is a full-time student, I believe that the media consumption was actually a better experience, for me personally. I think the comfort of my bed and being able to relax fully is something that felt really great. As much I love the outdoors, these particular two separate hours showed me how relaxing my media consumption can be, because I’m able to “shut my mind off’ & focus on the game. I enjoy these two activities every week, and I also believe that I will try to walk my favorite trail without music or my podcasts once in a while!
Snapchat’s discover page is usually something I try to
avoid, but today I’m seeing what I missed. Batista is upset at WWE for not
including him in their new commercial, for SmackDown’s 1000 special
episode. Hurricane Dorian is continuing
to move toward the United States and a short video clip shows the damage that
it’s already done to the Bahamas and other islands (the trending hashtag on
Twitter is misspelled #HurricaneDorain). In Florida people are either stocking
up on supplies or not worried at all. I get an ad for Groupon that can save me
up to 15%. There was a shooting in Odessa Texas that killed 5 and injured 21. I
get an ad for Rise of Kingdoms which looks like a society building game for
IOS. A man eats his AirPods. 13 reasons why there never should’ve been a third
season of Thirteen Reasons Why. The first guy to ever get back implants looks
strange to me, but you do you.100 people rate the same stranger on a scale of 1
to 10 when he is standing right next to them. He averages about a 7. People are
still preparing to raid area 51, while the rapper Blueface has multiple
girlfriends. My hour ended faster than I thought it would.
I sit down on a large log to the side of the trail I’d been
following, near University Park. It was early morning, so it might’ve been a
little wet. I’d walked down here before but hadn’t ever stopped for too long. I
was close to a small slow-moving stream that cut through the trail. It was way
too small for fish, but I was hopping I’d see a frog before I left. The
constant trickled made nice background noise mixed in with the birds. The
chirps were loud and frequent, but not piercing. I wondered how birdwatchers
could recognize a call of a particular species. They all sounded the same to
me. A squirrel jumps from one branch and makes a loud crash as it clutches onto
one that is much smaller. It runs up the base and then disappears into the canopy.
A jogger comes up the trail and we wave to each other. An hour passes quickly,
but it is a different type of quickness than before. I leave without ever
seeing a frog.
The information age is an interesting time to live. While we
live in a time that give us almost instantaneous information on any topic we
can think of, we often don’t use our available knowledge in any meaningful way.
This is due to our obsession with speed. We want quick, quotable news or
stories that we can easily digest and finish while only half paying attention.
While our knowledge base has broadened considerably, details often get lost.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be viable to shun technology and live completely
unplugged, but I think that it is useful to reach a balance.
Somewhere in the Manassas Battlefield around 6:30 P.M.
As I pull up to the hidden parking lot meant for horse trailers, I begin to make observations: the field is overgrown this time of year, so even the “official” walking path requires long socks and plenty of bug-spray. As I start down the path, the sounds of I-66 quickly fade away. It’s rush hour, so the calming sounds of nature are a welcome escape.
The first segment of the path transects a large field, where I typically see the most wildlife. This evening is no different: a small herd of deer spot me long before I see them. Luckily, I’m quick on the draw and I manage to snap a picture as they run from me.
The battlefield is a protected area, so wildlife is plentiful. In the past, I’ve spotted deer, turkeys, box turtles, black rat snakes, and groundhogs. I keep a sharp eye out as I continue through the field, but no other critters decide to make themselves known to me.
The next portion of the path follows the Bull Run creek through a section of woods. Due to recent rains, Bull Run is running slightly high and fast, and is significantly muddier than usual. There is a pile of rubbish close by that creates a great environment for reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. I gently lift up a few boards and a section of tin roofing, but no one’s home. I gently replace the boards as I found them so that the critters can continue to use them for shelter.
Another 5 minutes down the path I reach my destination: a small pond where I intend to fish. When approaching a fishing hole, it is very important to take note of several factors that will optimize your chances of catching a fish. The sun is setting, so I know the fish will be hungry. It is still relatively hot out, so the fish will be hanging around shade and in deeper parts of the pond. Lastly, the recent rains have risen the water levels and dirtied the water. This means the fish will have a hard time seeing, which means they will hang around brush piles in the water and chase after louder lures.
After taking all off these factors into account, I spent the final hour of my mission fishing in all the right spots with all the right baits and caught a largemouth bass in the exact spot I expected him to be.
Later that night, in a basement somewhere in Manassas
As the night winds down, I turn on my Xbox One to decompress after a long day. I initially intend to watch some funny videos to help relax, but one of my friends sends me an invitation to play Fortnite: Battle Royale. I know if I accept the invitation, I’ll be unable to get off at a reasonable hour and it will seriously affect my sleep schedule. Being the responsible adult I am, I accept the invitation.
An average game of Fortnite lasts anywhere from 10 – 20 minutes, so the next hour goes by very quickly. One game seems to merge into the next as downtime between games rarely lasts more than 2 minutes. Before I know it, an hour has passed. I don’t recall any specific details from my time playing as each game can be very repetive, yet strangely addicting. I didn’t get off once my allotted hour of time was up, but it didn’t matter. Whether I had played for 10 minutes or 5 hours, the end result would have been the same.
What I learned:
Spending an hour in each of these locations had an interesting effect on me. While in nature, I was able to passively observe my surroundings and truly enjoy myself, while playing video games for an hour seemed to require a lot more focus while ultimately being much less rewarding. Enjoying nature and pinpointing the location of various animals based off of previous knowledge brought me true joy. Alternatively, playing video games required more human interaction, which, although it wasn’t face-to-face, brought me a small amount of joy.
I spend a decent percentage of my life partaking in these two activities. Now that I’ve analyzed how they made me feel more deeply, I may make some lifestyle changes to become a happier person.
I spent my hour of media time watching the news, as well as being on my phone- browsing social media as well (Instagram). The news actually plays their head-stories in a loop! I did not know this before today. I got an incredible amount of information about hurricane Dorian. There was first hand video on the ground, showing people evacuating from their homes, as well as two meteorologists talking about the numeric details of the hurricane. In other news, the channel covered a recent shooting in Texas. The news covered aerial surveillance of the shooter, as well as a few victim photos. Overall, there was dramatic music and somber tones from the news anchors. The commercials were about Charmin ultra-soft toilet paper, and a car commercial for Buick.
My hour spent in nature was lovely and took place in the Shenandoah Valley, in Shenandoah National Park. There was a lot of introspection from this, and the other half of the information I received was purely sensory. The waterfall I was near was loud, not just in noise, but also through the vibrations I felt through the ground and the trees. There was only one person I saw on the trail and he was an old man who just shared a quick glance and smile. I saw that the initially cloudy day was very slowly opening up into blue bird skies. Another note I had was the rotation of the earth. Thoughts about homework and driving through traffic also crept in, as I was constantly checking my watch for the time.
This experience/assignment taught me about speed of information delivery above all things. When watching the news, everything was kind of hurled at me and my brain was hyper with stimuli. The amount of information I got from being outside wasn’t any less. However, the cadence through which I could process the information was different. I had the opportunity to think about everything I was feeling and how it was connected to this assignment, as well as the world. Another topic it touched on was the privilege of constant information, I wondered about people who had limited access to the internet and social communication- as well as how that limited pipeline to the world affected their world view(s).
I turn on the TV in my room, automatically launching Netflix and putting on Friends. I’ve seen the show so many times its like white noise to me. My dog joins me in my bed and I open my phone and go on TikTok, an app I swore to myself I would never download but somehow over the summer ended up on my phone. I scroll through the videos, seeing the same video concepts and sounds being used over and over again, and I wonder if anyone has anything original to say anymore. Every now and again I find a video that literally makes me laugh out loud, or I find cute videos of dogs being silly. But for the most part it is filled with teenagers in their room lip-syncing or trying too hard to be funny. I promise myself one more video and then I’ll put the phone away, but it turns to two more, or five more until I notice Netflix is asking me if I am still watching. I say yes and move my attention to Instagram. I scroll through, seeing pictures of my old high school classmates starting classes, some studying abroad, some moving across the country. I see social media influencers posting beautiful pictures of them at the beach or in some foreign city. The comments are filled with people wishing they could travel there, that they could look as beautiful as they do and things like that. My dog lets out a loud sigh, and I realize he’s bored out of his mind, so I decide to take him out for a while.
I roll the windows of my car down so my dog can stick his head out the window as I drive to the dog park. By the time we get to the park his white hair is blown back and he looks a little crazy. I let him run free in the enclosed grass area. I’m greeted by many different breeds of dog as I make my way to the park bench, this is my heaven. I sit and try to find my dog, who seemed to have gained the interest of two large German Shepherds who tower over my little Yorkie-Poo. They intensely sniff each other before breaking out into a run, my little guy chasing the big guys. They all seem to get along well, not caring how different they are, just excited they have someone to play with. It makes me think about what goes on in a dog’s head when they see another dog. Most of the time I notice that they perk up and want to go say hi to each other. They get all excited over a dog they’ve never met before. Why aren’t humans like this? Could it just be that we see humans so much on a regular basis or just that we really do not care about other humans that much that we don’t get excited to see one unless it’s one we care about. Some people are nice enough to say hi to strangers as they walk by as a way of being polite.But mostly we all just walk past one another, not paying an ounce of attention. The owners of all the dogs at the park are on their phone or reading a book, all in their own little bubble while their fur friends are all interacting with one another, being the happiest they could be.
As I reflect on the hour spent in bed and the hour spent at the dog park I become aware of how people interact with one another these days. Most of the interaction comes from being online or on social media. Their kindness and even spitefulness is magnified online. No one I’ve come across has spoken to me the way they speak to people on the Internet through their comments, weather they be nice or rude. I notice people are more excited to see their favorite celebrity post a picture of their hand than to see/meet someone new at a coffee shop. In reality most people won’t engage in person to person conversations, and they most certainly say exactly what is on their mind. No one will walk up to you and say “OMG I loveeee your hair, I would kill for hair like that!” but will comment it on your Instagram post without a second thought. I really admire how friendly dogs are with one another, not caring what they look like or what breed they are and being excited to meet a new friend. If people were like this (wanting to meet people in person and actually get to know them), I have a feeling the world would be a much nicer place.
Channel 3 has Judge Mathison where the defendant “Candy” is being sued for $2000 by ex-boyfriend “Rich” for an unpaid loan. The defendant used to misuse alcohol and pills, but has been 4 years sober now. NBC News has on a show called 3rdHour Today that explains a new technology that uses digital cutting and modern manufacturing for the future of proper sizing in clothing. Good Day DCon Fox gives an overview of Hurricane Dorian and explains how South Carolina have already began evacuations. Local forecast includes a beautiful afternoon, with a listing of temperatures for the airports in the region (77 for BWI). “Terrible Traffic Tuesday” is the label for today from Fox News as new traffic patterns and post-holiday weekend travels bring on a higher volume of traffic. ABC has a commercial on for factory-trained experts for Bray & Scarf who help with appliances. “Live with Kelly and Ryan” interviews Maggie Gyllenhall for her part in “the deuce”. which she finds stimulating and a fun role to play. Good morning Washingtoncovers a story about Justin Bieber’s most recent Instagram post that talk about his struggles with drugs, women, financial responsibilities and fame. He continues to say by 20, “he made every bad decision known to man” and had “gone from the world’s most adored young man to a troubled, hated man” for all of his mistakes. The CBS channel has an ad for Ozempic, which is a drug that can be used to help with obesity/weight loss. Major side effects include dehydration. The City of Fairfax Information channel informs watchers of important events coming up such as Bingo on Friday, September 6 at the Firehouse and when different city council work sessions are planned for. As it is close to an hour of watching television, the last channel is an infomercial channel for Chaco Canyon Southwest Jewelry which symbolizes native American heritage, showing off a turquoise cuff bracelet for $319.90.
For a more naturalistic setting, I decided to spend an hour sitting out in the Innovation Food Forest. I noticed that there were patterns all around me. The bees preferred the chive plants, but would never get too close to another one. The butterflies danced around the gardens and chose different selections for where they wanted to land. While watching the butterfly, I learned that they rest sometimes in order to rub their wings together, in order to clean off their wings. I learned that people passing by were completely unaware of the things going on in the innovation forest, passing through it without paying any attention to the interactions around them. A few birds flew through and landed on the ground, hopping after one another and rubbing their feathers in the dirt. Overall, I learned that there are several interactions going on in the environment at all times, even when it goes unrealized.
When comparing both phases of this experiment, there are a few key take-aways. The information that is learned in each setting is completely different from the other. When in a environment and interacting with media, you are learning things that may be trivial or romanticized by the media. You learn things that aren’t necessary for your well-being such as how Justin Bieber’s fall from grace affected him, but how does this influence us as watchers? When in a more naturalistic setting, you are able to pick up on small interactions between the environment and relationships that are formed that you wouldn’t usually notice. For example, I saw a butterfly and a bee share the same flower. I had never noticed something like that before, thinking that one would scare away the other. They both had the same purpose on the flower, and actually worked together to achieve that. Paying more attention to naturalistic interactions can help better everyone’s lives because it creates less focus on things that aren’t important or necessary to our lives, and more focus to the things that are.
During my one hour of media, I continued with my normal behavior. During the hour I carried a bit more attention and awareness within me during the experience of introspective and analysis. I live my life in this mediated state. I wake up listening to music, the news, or a Youtube video while I shower and dress. At least an hour before I sleep, I listen to and/or watch the news. Recently the partner I live has been away for weeks on vacation. Since, I’ve stopped with cable news and npr to keep myself updated. I choose a nontraditional forms of media consumption, a podcast and Facebook. I listened to Sex with Emily on Spotify and used the Facebook on my phone, a fully immersive experience with modern tech.
The podcast I listened to was an episode of man interviewed, who wrote a book about fantasies. He interviewed 400,000 people to catagorize the most common fantasies. I learned men prefer a particular person to focus on rather than how women fantasy more about a setting and specific experience. I read social and environmental oriented articles. Iceland has a law for women for have equal pay by 2022 (Evening Standard) , nestle taking water from Florida Springs (EcoWatch), Maine bans styrofoam (Eco Watch) and so. I realize I spent a lot of my free time listening to lectures or podcasts and reading articles.
My time in nature made me feel a little anxious because I went my longest with out checking email, news, notifications, texts, replies, phone calls, or music with head phones. I brought my phone in my back pack to time the hour and waited to use my phone until the timer went off. I felt peaceful. I sat on the ground in Rock Creek Park. I took my socks and shoes off, leaving my bare feet on the ground. I stare at the trees, focused on breathing slower, and let go of the urge to check my phone. I recognized how much self-induced pressure I put on myself to get things done while simultaneously distracting myself into something with tech. I’ve know it’s health and necessary for each of us to give ourselves moments just to able to be fully present, free of to do list, self-critic, nose, and being surrounded by plants. The mind needs this to have a healthy level of well-being. After what it felt like 15 minutes, I wake by the creek for the rest of the hour.
The most significant thing I took away from this analysis is how much media I consume all day long. When I wake up, drive, walk, and before I sleep, I have some form of a screen or speakers at use. I never allow myself to have total silence. My life is so immersed in consumed technology. I haven’t a day without it in at least a decade. It’s a somewhat gray and mildly dark feeling because I’m not sure it’s a positive or negative thing. I can imagine a life without and I don’t know which is better in terms of mental health and brain cognitions and function. The assignment has left me wondering what is too much to, should there be a limit, and would I be more productive with less of it?
For this assignment, I decided to begin with my hour of media. I watched an episode of my current favorite show on Hulu, The Handmaids Tale. The episode was about an hour long, with a few commercial breaks. The commercials were focused mostly on labor day sales, which prompted the purchase of the new outdoor furniture currently sitting on my balcony. In addition to holiday sales, many of the ads were from insurance companies like Progressive, with another third of the ads representing phone companies like Verizon, T Mobile, and Cricket.
For my hour outdoors, I decided to organize a hike and trash clean up with some Brothers from my fraternity. We drove up to the Billy Goat Trail at 7am, and spent the morning hiking through the woods collecting trash and picking paw paw fruits. We were on the trail for a few hours, and managed to remove about 6-8 bags of trash from the park. The information I received from this experience was mostly focused around the best way to get the paw paws down from the trees and learning which ones were ripe through trial and error.
The information I received during the media experience was almost exactly opposite the information I got from the hike. Instead of being bombarded with ads about insuracne, and cell phone coverage, I spent my hour in the woods learning about the environemnt around me, which I enjoyed much more than learning about the sales around Fairfax.
