Jan Jan Maran
Scrolling through Instagram on a Thursday night for an hour, I came across a variety of posts made by friends from high school, college, church, and the Burmese community I knew, plus some organizations/famous people I followed. In just the span of that one hour, I experienced information overload in all kinds of areas regarding my friend’s experiences of life and learned that:
- My friend Mary got a haircut three months ago, and just now decided to upload a selfie notifying all her followers of the delayed news.
- Mason Cru does a lot of social justice outreach, like helping enslaved kids in Ghana and packing food for those in the Middle East.
- My Burmese friend from Minnesota is a senior in high school this year.
- The song “F You I Love You” is a nice bop (thanks to the friend who posted a screenshot of the song’s Spotify track image on their story!).
- A guy named Chris Chan has thousands of views for a video of himself taking sample foods multiple times with a different outfit each time.
- My freshman cousin doesn’t really have correct grammar (he captioned his recent picture, “[M]y attempt in trying to look like those asian instagram boys” instead of saying “my attempt AT”)… what’s new.
- A friend in Florida heard loud thunder from inside the house, and her shower turned cold subsequently thereafter.
- My Thai friend from George Mason lost her keys! Sad face.
- A high school classmate who was in Chamber Orchestra with me is now a college senior.
- A friend I met at Junior District Orchestra during my high school years has been married for one month now(?!) and she got a dog recently.
- Oh Wonder, one of my favorite duos, is coming out with a new album soon.
- Lastly, but most interesting- Fox 46 Charlotte news anchor Nick Kosir was featured in a cameo for Lil Nas at the VMAs!
While this was the information I gathered in my one-hour scrolling through Instagram and tapping through Instagram stories of the people I follow, I was able to step back in nature this weekend when I attended my church’s annual retreat to Camp Fraser, located near Great Falls. There, for at least one hour without my phone in my hands, I learned that:
- Trees are super tall. They can stay standing even when they are broken and crooked, or slouching in all kinds of directions.
- The chirping of crickets, or whatever insects that are up in the trees, can be very noisy if paid attention to. Otherwise, your mind can seem to tune them out unconsciously as they fade into the background.
- Different types of trees can be growing right next to each other.
- Leaves start falling in late August. A few trees can even be seen completely bare as early as this time of the year.
- Finally, trees provide lots of shade and keep us cool- I didn’t realize how much of a difference this made for the amount of heat and sunlight received when living in the suburbs/city versus being in the woods.
After analyzing what I picked up from the two contrasting modes of learning, I have come to conclude that there is so much more to gain in terms of spirituality and peacefulness when in nature, as opposed to what little is offered by social media in the rushing feeling endorsed by the social pressures and unnecessary demands for attention. I noticed that my perception of time also changed dramatically when I was in nature compared to when I was on Instagram. Due to the countless number of posts that can appear in one’s timeline within a single day, time becomes extremely condensed especially when having to scroll through each and every photo that appears so that one can double-tap to give likes, or simply catch up on what one’s peers have been up to.
While this facade of busy-ness built up by social media hinders individuals from truly enjoying the moment, I found that I was living more in the present and was increasingly aware of myself and my surroundings when outside in nature. Hence, being more connected to reality through nature yielded better quality results for my happiness and conscientiousness of others when I went away to the woods this weekend to literally get a breath of fresh air. Although I gained more social information on Instagram than I did when I was out in nature, less became more as I learned that more did not always mean better.