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.