Two Hours

Howard Franklin

Now what better way is there to consume information online than going down a one hour rabbit hole on youtube. I began this journey with a simple how do video and in the search suggestions I see ‘how do toilets work’. I click the video to soon learn about how the flow of water functions inside a toilet, the different internal parts, and the refilling process. Now I know something as trivial of how a toilet works and feel somewhat accomplished, but on to the next video I go. I look through the recommendations and saw a quick clip of an omelete sizzling. It was a mighty fine omelete with peppers, tomatoes, ham, onions, and cheese with such a  nice sizzling sound. Searching for more information, I came across a Vsauce video which are always jampacked with randoms thought/ideas that always somehow get wrangled back together to make a complete video that actually makes sense. For example, the Vsauce video I watched was why are things cute? It begins with the history of the word cute, which stemmed from ‘acute’ then to be used as slang to describe a pretty girl. As time went on, cute began to mean things that are small, cuddly, soft, etc and the reason why we find things that are cute is because they have characteristics that resemble human babies. For example, if something mundane like a hammer gets altered to show characteristics like rounded, small, soft, (like a baby), then the hammer will become cute. I stopped myself from getting sucked into the Vsauce rabbit hole because that would’ve been hours of information that I would not be able to fit into this assignment, so then I go back to the recommended page and refresh. I see an overview video about cornsnakes that goes over their morphology, eating habits, where they’re native, and how the wild ones compare to domesticated ones. Looking for something else to watch, I came across a quick video of someone putting a lightbulb in a microwave and making it light up. Strange, yet intriguing, I wonder why someone would do such a thing, but atleast now I know that microwaves can indeed powerup a lightbulb. Scrolling through the plethora of videos YouTube has to offer, I conclude my rabbit hole on some videos that talk about the history of cheese and how different cultures created their own versions of cheese that made ancient trades flourish by cheese alone. 

To get back in touch with nature I go to my favorite spot, Daniels Run Park. It has all the urban nature you could possibly want like trees, wildlife, hidden trails, streams, and an assortment of wild flowers all right here near downtown Fairfax. To spend my one hour distanced from the world I climb up my usual tree and sit comfortably on one of the thicker branches and lay my back agianst the trunk. I made sure to leave my phone off in my backpack at the bottom of the tree to make sure I eliminate all distractions and really be in touch with the environment around me. Almost instantly, I felt a great relief to not have to think about the ‘real world’ and all the stress it brings so I really savor the peace and quiet. Unfortunately, as comfortable and relaxed as I was I really wanted to take a nap, but the fear of falling about 10ft from a tree in my sleep shut that idea down almost instantly. As I’m up there experiencing the environment, I’m a tad bit overwhelemed, but not the same as I would be getting a lot of information from media. No, this was different. This type of overwhelmingness was decent, it was like theres so much to observe and look at, but no rush becaue I know it will always be there and I can access it any time. So the first thing I do is look around and since I was about 10ft up in the air I got a pretty good view of everything around me. Trees were everywhere as they populated most of the area, but everything was just so randomly placed that it just felt like everything is where its supposed to be and that you’re looking at a real life painting. I start looking more in depth in certain spots and was able to see the stream just peacefully flowing like how its supposed to. A couple minutes pass as I’m in dead silence then all of a sudden I hear a faint scurrying among the leaves and notice a fox running along the trail. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one I say to myself as it was really cool to encounter a fox just doing its thing without it knowing about my presence. After that, I closed my eyes and just listened to what was around me to continue this peaceful experience. I could hear the wind blow the trees and the soothing sounds of nearby stream. Towards the 50 minute mark I began to get ants crawling on my leg which was a bit unpleasant so I decided to wrap it up and call it a day. 

After this 2 hour experience, I really got to understand the difference between our ‘mediated’ environment and our ‘natural’ environment and how we perceive information from them. The main takeaway I received from both is from the mediated environment information is thrown at you, while the natural environment has more passive information that you decide whether you want to take it or not. I would definitely repeat the natural environment experience because its a great escape from daily stressors and I am very glad I was able to do this assignment. 

TS

For my hour outside, I decided to make a day trip to one of my favorite places in the DMV, the Monocasy River in Maryland. I’ve spent the last two summers working as a camp counselor – not just any camp counselor, but a kayaking and hiking instructor – where I’ve been introduced to some of the most ethereal nature spots outside of the city and suburbs. As a Williamsburg native, I have always viewed Northern Virginia as somewhere different – enshrouded with tall buildings and bustling city streets, where seeing native wildlife is an anomaly. However, my job showed me that this is simply not true. There is a wide variety of parks, rivers, streams, or creeks hidden away from busy, suburban life just waiting to be explored.

Nonetheless, working outside full-time is enough to make anybody crave the indoors. As much as I adore paddling down the Shenandoah, observing native wildlife, or hiking to some of the best lookouts in the area, work is work. Being outside in the sun, heat, or rain all day every day undoubtedly changes the way one views the outdoors. Since finishing up with camp this summer, I’ve found it difficult to recover from this fatigue.

In an effort to reestablish my inherent passion for being outdoors, I make the hour-or-so drive to rural Frederick County. This place holds a lot of importance for me, as it’s somewhere I go to ponder – existential crises, big decisions, or just life itself.

Upon arriving, I park my car and walk down to the boat launch, which is covered in vibrantly colored, provocative graffiti. To my dismay, the area is littered with all kinds of waste – plastics, glass bottles, aluminum cans, even needles. I don’t remember it being this run down. I decided to pick up a plastic bag and fill it with trash – fishing line, bobbers, a needle, a beer can, a takeout box – and I find myself deeply bothered by how people view nature… disposable.

I spent some time picking up litter and pondering about human nature’s exploitative tendencies, until a splash distracts me. The water is a clear blue-green, spotted with smooth white rocks and overlayed by the shadow of a bridge above my head. Birds call to each other in the distance, while I unsuccessfully use my fading knowledge of native birdsong to identify the sources of the commotion. My eyes rest upon a hollowed, petrified oak tree which appeared to have fallen into the shallow end of the river. I walk over and have a seat, admiring the small minnows and crawfish that claimed the submerged end of the tree as their home. I spent the rest of the hour turning over stones – one of my favorite activities – where I find more crawfish, insect larvae, fishing spiders, and even a small Mad Tom, a type of freshwater catfish.

The hour goes by much more quickly than anticipated – so quickly that I forgot about the task at hand and became entranced by all the wildlife to see.

For my second hour of information, I decided to take a break from my schoolwork by playing some video games with my roommate. Lately, we’ve been enjoying our nights off with hours of various games: Super Smash Bros, Mariokart, Overcooked, Mario Party… whichever the choice of the night may be, it is quite the time commitment. We are both guilty of the infamous ‘just one more game!’, which will always turn into five more games. Or six, or seven. Or ten.

We decide to spend the hour playing Smash, alternating between our go-to characters: first Ness, then Ice Climbers, then Duck Hunt. Up A, right B, left A, down B. As we play, we mindlessly snack on chips and dip while hooting and hollering at the TV. We take turns winning and losing, as we are pretty evenly matched.  Another common phrase is ‘we have to end on a good one!’. An hour of media consumption quickly turns into two hours, then two and a half. By the time we are done, our brains are fried – eyes burning from not blinking and thumbs sore from button-mashing.

In this day and age, we are force-fed a constant stream of information daily, making it very easy to get wrapped up in the wide selection of media available to us. Whatever that information may be – news, reality television, video games – anything in excess is harmful. However, it’s difficult to avoid that excess. It seems like everywhere we turn, there’s a new, different form of media to get sucked in to. Regardless of how much media is readily available to us, we must remember to stay grounded in what we know – the world around us.

For my one hour of media consumption, I spent time typing away at my computer and listening to my music playlist on my phone. My day started out with an early morning with me doing my homework for a couple of different classes. I had went back and forth going through different sites and taking a break in between scrolling through my Pinterest seeing what I liked in matters of food and clothing. I realized when the hour was over that I felt exhausted from not really doing much. When I was younger, I remember always jumping around technology and being able to run around for hours after the fact. This time it felt more like a chore that was inching to get done and afterwards felt like I needed to nap. 

For my one hour out in nature I took a short drive to Great Falls Park to go on a small hike and to put my feet in the water. It wasn’t too hot outside since I went in the morning, I could enjoy the wind breezing by my skin. I couldn’t help looking at the clear water and rocks that were everywhere. I made it slowly down the ridged rocks to get closer to the water. Nearly slipped a couple of rocks due to the slippery algae that was on the rocks. Though I was able to find a small beach with pebbles scattered through it and I grabbed the picnic blanket I had packet. I pulled out the food I had brought as well and just laid down staring at the sky. It was a beautiful view that just made me feel quieter. I then took off my shoes and put my feet in the water. It was a shock to my own system when I touched the cold water. I could feel; the shiver run up my spine as I looked out at the water. I soon went back to my food and ate what I packed. It felt different after the hour was up, more relaxed but still wired in my own mind.  

The experience in general was a bit unexpected but also expected. What I mean is I expected to feel more accelerated after being on the media, but I had really felt tired of it. It was the complete opposite till I realized what I had been doing over time then I started to see that it was a repeating trend. When I was out in nature, I seemed to get more energy from it, being able to stare at it for even a few moments seemed to give me a tiny bit of boost further to keep going. The main thing I learned is that we need to each figure out what gives us that boost and take in everything rather than be scattered with the media.  

Tim H

One paragraph describing information received from one hour of media consumption

For my one hour of media consumption, I chose to curate my media consumption experience. This is in contrast to Bill McKibben’s approach of watching a collection of cable tv from Fairfax’s cable system, which seemed to bear a quite randomly aggregated stream of information. The information I focused my attention on was from Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3, a nostalgic video game from my childhood. In the game, human society has not developed the technology for large scale industrial farming, but still subsists on a hunter-gatherer style of life. Since hunting is a major part of the culture and a means of survival for the society, they place an equal importance on ecological monitoring and management. The natural world is studied extensively and a careful balance is found between the natural rates at which different animals reproduce and the rate at which they are hunted. What emerges is a form of conservation biology, they ensure their impact on the natural world is not more than can be replenished. This system creates a feedback loop that leads to the conservation of nature and the survival of the human species. If only this sort of thinking could have been applied in our reality. Oh, wait! The way of life I described is akin to the practices of indigenous societies, which have been all too quickly swept under the rug by colonization. This train of thought led me to ponder world history and how things may have been different today if indigenous people had been given the respect they deserved.

Location: Pohick Stream Valley Park in Burke

              My hour outdoors in a naturalistic environment started with me walking to my destination, a small stream nearby to my house. Walking past towering townhouses I looked up at one and wondered “Is that a three bedroom or a four bedroom?” before strolling on. I eventually reached the edge of the forest surrounding the stream. Looking at the tall trees, then the medium sized ones, and then down to the smaller saplings, I thought that they sort of resembled the three-story townhouse I was looking at just before. It occurred to me suddenly that you could house a lot more organisms in a naturalistic environment than you could in the same amount of space in a human altered environment. A three-story townhouse sleeps maybe 5 or 6 humans, but a three-story forest sleeps birds, bats, rodents, insects, an almost uncountable number of species. While a human domicile holds maybe 2 species if they have pets (or pests). I noticed a dead tree, looking like it had been feasted on by both bugs and birds. When you think about it, animals live in the same places, dine in the same places, you can really see why the term community is used so frequently in ecology. When I arrived at the streambed, I approached the edge of the water and saw a pile of clam shells picked clean. “Wow!” I thought, “No need for a trash can because that food comes packaged in natural materials.” And that packaging will be recycled into sediment and eventually into a new clam by completely natural processes. A flowering plant with beautiful yellow and orange blooms that looked like tiny trumpets grew along the bank looking almost like orange string lights decorating the bank. Many clumps of grasses had been matted down like something large has been traipsing through and foraging for food. Or maybe it was just having some fun flattening a few clumps of grass. The recent rain had caused a rise in the water level in the stream which flowed vigorously. Suddenly, I heard a loud bird call out from a tree somewhere. What was the meaning of this vocalization? Was it warning to others that there was a large mammal poking around down by the stream? Whether it was a change in my attention from the bird or the number of mosquitoes chasing me down, I decided to move from the stream back into the forest. I noticed a dead cicada on the trail, its body was brown and decaying but its wings were spread out and looking glassy and clean. Funny how fragile these wings seemed yet they remain after the body has broken. It made me think that life itself seems fragile, yet resilient. I began walking back to my house and made note of the color of the sky. The light blue background was interwoven with orange tinted clouds; the two complimentary colors were contrasting beautifully with their vivid tones. Eventually as I made it home, I noted the sky has turned a deep red, a smooth and blended looking hue. Stepping back inside, I wondered how many different shades the sky changed to over the course of a day.

One paragraph summarizing what I learned from this experience

              My outdoor hour felt “deeper” than my indoor hour, try as I did to pry a deeper meaning from a video game. I felt free in my thoughts when exploring nature, different from the confined and almost trapped feeling I got when considering history and what has led up to the present after playing video games for an hour. It can be freeing to try and escape this reality by playing in another one, but at the end of the day its not the greatest way to take in information. It is better to be rooted in reality, recognizing the information presented by nature and focusing on correcting mistakes made in the past.

For my one hour in a mediated environment, I chose to watch a movie with my sister and friend in my family room which we do very often. I can smell the food being made from the kitchen where my mom is making some bean soup. I’m feeling very hungry, and I am excited to eat soon. While they pick out a movie to watch I am playing a game on my phone to pass the time. We finally decide to watch Night at the Museum. During the movie I scrolled through various social media platforms on my phone like Instagram and TikTok. I saw lots of videos of dogs, travel videos and thought to myself about getting a new haircut.

For my one hour of an unmediated environment, I decided to go to the little pond and bridge area in my neighborhood. There is a little path that leads to a quiet area with a bench, but I decided to sit right down by the water. It’s a really hot day so there is no one around. I am aware of the sounds around me; the wind blowing, barking dogs, birds chirping, humming of insects, and the water is rippling quite fast. It makes me think about wanting to kayak/canoe in here as I have seen many others do as well. At various points I think about all the assignments/other tasks I need to complete. I also think about how I want to do this more often and bring my dogs when it’s not too hot outside. I spend the rest of the hour observing my surroundings and walking around the pond.

This assignment showed me how often I remain in a mediated environment and how hard it was for me to go without. Typically, if I go walking, I am at least listening to music or if I am not using my phone, computer, or headphones, then I am talking to someone else. My one hour outside reminded me how calming it is without any kind of media and allowed me to stream my thoughts. When there is so much media happening, it can become quite stressful or overwhelming, but being in this natural environment allowed me to focus. I learned that I felt much more productive after coming back from my one hour outside. My one hour of media also made me realize I need to start focusing on one thing at a time because I am gaining such a short attention span and I am mindlessly scrolling through an app when I could be doing something more productive. However, it is nice sometimes to sit and scroll through fun videos after a long day of school/work where we are taking in heaps of information. Overall, I learned I need to have a better relationship and balance between a mediated and unmediated environment.

William McKee

I took an hour to sit on the back porch of our farm property in Greene County, Virginia. It sits at the base of the Shenandoah National Park and although there are people in the area, the farm itself is isolated on several hundred acres. It is a place to go were there is no internet and unbelievably bad cell reception, so it is the perfect place to disconnect from modern communications.  I chose to sit a dusk, because that is when many animals come out to eat and forage. I saw a small heard of deer at the edge of the hay field, directly in front of the back porch. It was quite a distance, but you could see them slowly some out of the woods. To my left, there was a family of wild turkeys up a large hill and past one of two barns that were also enjoying the fresh cute hay. The sounds of the crickets, locust and tree frogs became louder and louder as the sun set. In many ways, it is such a quiet place, but nature has a strong voice and when the sunsets, many sounds come to life. There is also the sound of the coyotes, and I was listening carefully to see if they were around. They are silent and stealthy and can be close to you and you do not even know it. But the other animals do. We have two young quarter horses at the farm. They are each about a year old. The only way I knew that the coyotes were there, was when I saw the female horse, the filly start running. I thought she was playing and burning off some energy because the night was starting too cool from a muggy day, and they stayed out of the fields in the barn.  It is cooler in there and they are getting attacked by flies and bugs. But then, the colt started running as well from the back paddock into the front. They were going full speed and it was almost dark. That is unusual behavior. I did not think too much of it, just watching what was happening until they almost jumped the fence near me. They were snorting loudly and stomping. Making all kinds of noises to alert. They wanted me to know something was out there. This behavior repeated itself several times. I got up and went to them at the fence. I was looking at the area where they ran from but could not see anything. They were on high alert, in fight or flight mode and the young colt was sweating and nervous. I calmed them down, got them fresh water in the trough and eventually the calmed down. The thing is, I heard and saw nothing, but they heard and saw something. It made me realize how our senses can be dulled, the less we are focused on what is around us but for animals, especially heard animals that can be prey, they are always on alert for unusual sights, sounds and smells. They are constantly using all their senses and are quick to react when startled.

              When watching the new Game of Thrones series, the next night, I almost had the opposite type of experience. I was anticipating what was to come. How would the characters react? Who would challenge who for power. I was analyzing what outcomes could play out, and how the characters would reveal themselves as I watched. What is so interesting is that in this show, there is the illusion of power and control over intimidating beasts, who could easily kill or maimed the men/women who encounter them. The way the story is written shows that we as humans, believe we can control the scary things in the world, because we are smarter, have unique skills or in this case some special power.  I enjoy watching shows like this because I can feel the emotions of how I react to a scene and have emotions around how it plays out even though it is not real. It is just a fictional show written by a science fiction author.

              When comparing the impact and experiences of real and a compelling story, I find myself feeling like everything that happened was in a way opposite of what it should be. I should have been scared and nervous because of the horse’s reaction and high alert behavior. Instead, once I realized I could not see any threat, I felt compelled to calm them, and make them feel safe and at ease. The fact that they alerted me to react to their fear was very compelling, yet I did not share it once I investigated. It was their way of telling me that there was a problem and to do something even though initially I was unaware of any threat. In the HBO series, I anticipate the threat and react to what I would do in each situation. How I think they should handle a problem and take a stance or fight a fight.  It is not real, yet I can anticipate, and problem solve an imagined threat. When comparing the two, I realized that the basis of fight or flight, life or death are ingrained in animals and humans. As humans we reason our way around it, but in nature, an animal reacts. The feelings and emotions around each experience are different, even though the farm experience was real and the TV one was fake.

Tamar Gorgadze

Mason Neck State Park has been my holding space for many years. At all stages of life and through many experienced emotions, I have been able to rely on its paths to hold me and walk me through it all. And with a warm drink in hand on a silent and breezy morning, with barely any people in sight, I can settle and be. 

Many weeks have passed since I was last here, a treat, especially since I have been doing a terrible job of taking care of myself. An hour here was an escape I needed. I felt calm, and I got the needed time to breathe, to hold a steady pace. As I walk the path, look at the trees, take in the sound of the birds singing their song, and the squirrels bouncing around in the leaves, I can feel my intuition, listen to my body, walk through my thought process and work through neglected feelings. Problem-solving is easy when I feel connected to my intuition, and patterns in my personal life is better observed in nature. Information comes through my body and mind differently than when I am living my life in the rush and built up pressure. When I look around and see all the beauty around me, hear the silence and feel safe, all my worries diminish to a tiny spec, and life priorities shift. Several times, I felt playful. I took the time to sit and observe various plants, danced around and did some workouts, and stopped at a bridge to look up at the trees and catch a bit of the sky peeking through the canopy cover. Creativity and ideas expand. It always feels like coming home, a place where I feel seen. 

Later in the evening, I made myself shrimp fajitas and took a “break” to eat and watch a show I started, The Sinner. I need something to watch while I eat, so the main event is eating and gobbling down my food in less than 10 minutes. What now? There are only a handful of shows that can keep me engaged, and even with that, I have moments where I feel compelled to multitask. I would not call it multitasking. Unless I am watching a show or a movie with another individual, I already know what is to come, unfortunately. For the first twenty minutes, I keep my eyes on the TV screen and am interested in the show. A little over 20 minutes into the show, I reached for my phone and started scrolling. First, I checked my Instagram and then my emails, Reddit and Youtube, looking for the next best thing. I then deleted Instagram off my phone, thinking taking this action will keep me from doing the unnecessary and train my brain to focus on the show alone. A failed attempt and an attempt I made many times. Even when I did not find reasons to pick up my phone, my mind wandered, and I started thinking about all my concerns or what I should be doing. After the show ended, I felt an overall feeling of dissatisfaction. Yet, when Netflix displayed a few seconds countdown for the next episode I let the episode play. What is one more episode of feeling misaligned with what I want to get done and putting aside work that would satisfy me? 

This exercise allowed me to re-engage in an old habit I had built of walking most mornings on that path at Mason Neck. I greatly benefited from my time out in nature in the past, and the benefit of that practice was clear in my everyday life. Since abandoning this practice, I have missed out on connecting with myself and feeling calmer. One hour in nature also served as a great reminder of how much the outdoors is a place of home for me and the roles it has played in bettering my life and providing a space where I feel understood and heard. Life makes sense out there. Nature provides us with substantial lessons just by being and observing the outdoor environment, my thought process, and connecting the two. The one-hour consuming media demonstrated the loss of a critical skill in our world today, deep focus. I never liked how technology brought with it the inability to be in your present day, plan it as you would like , and live it. The ease of access to the world and others ease of access to you feels like a drag, although it has its benefits. Additionally, I was reminded of the importance of taking time to watch a show without worrying about productivity. At the same time, it likely is a mix of being hard on myself about doing something “unproductive” and that I simply don’t get any pleasure or feeling of reward from watching shows and videos, but that I use it as a tool to distract myself.