
How the media, TV and technology has manipulated humanity and disconnected us from nature.
“How Wireless Technology Short-Circuits the Brain-Nature Connection
* We have instant access to any kind of information at the touch of an iPad or smartphone.
* We have unlimited television, movie, and music options.
* To know more about a Tree or animal, we no longer need to go outside and ask the Tree or animal—we can Google it.
* Our instruments will tell us the weather, lay out a map before us, and tell us what direction to walk.
We have learned to connect with life in a way that leaves us disconnected. The disconnect is not only from our world but also from ourselves and eachother. Smartphone use in particular has permeated our culture to such a degree that it is now the norm to see people dining in restaurants and engaging with their phones rather than one another. More and more employers are establishing policies to limit cell phone use, and states are passing laws to ban their use while driving. The pervasiveness of smartphones and the way in which we are using them has created a phenomenon some researchers call the "checking habit": the repetitive scanning of online and social media content. In a real sense, we have internalized technology. In doing so, we have diminished our multisensory and intuitive capabilities to fit a culture that emphasizes visual input and feedback.
MEDIA MANIPULATES REALITY
Our relationship with media is merely an extension of our civilized world. where mechanised mega-farms grow our food, multinational corporations prepare it, huge utilities provide our water and energy, and faceless people in faraway lands furnish our clothing. These systems give us cheap necessities and lives of convenience-along with lives of depen-dence. Along with that, we have become dependent on media to shape our thoughts and paint our world.
How Media Shapes Our Personal Reality
First: Ever-changing popular opinion and cultural whims create media reality, which supplants our Nature connection.
Second: We subscribe to media's version of the world and live in a perpetual cycle of conformity with it, losing touch with a good share of our own authenticity.
Third: We use media as a coping mechanism, to numb ourselves so we can get through— and recuperate from—the day.
Fourth: We have trained ourselves to become passive receptors-observers rather than participants.
Instead of being actively engaged in relationship, we sit on the sidelines fulfilling our relationship needs by watching sitcoms, reality shows, romantic comedies, documentaries, and adventure films while our own life-our potential life, that is— passes us by. We tend to do the same with Nature: we find a good vantage point to sit and watch. It's the way we've been trained to relate to life: sit at a desk at school or work, sit in front of the TV, sit and watch a game or concert. No matter where, what, or why, it nearly always amounts to watching others live their lives. But not anymore. The first part of this book awakened us to our potential for becoming active participants, and from this point on we're going to learn exactly how to do it. Nature requires that we show up as we are: ready to engage with other beings as they are. We will increasingly find the joy in Becoming Nature as we learn to grow more into our authentic selves, apart from whom media tells us we
should be.
Media's Real-time Robbery
Let's take a close look at one form of media to see its effect upon us. Which form we choose doesn't matter any more than which fast-food as it's our most common and accessible form of media. burger we eat, as they all influence us similarly. We'll go with television, A recent study of nearly thirty thousand adults shows that while watching television may bring us short-term pleasure, it can also cause long-term malaise. Regardless of age, income bracket, educational level, or marital status, those who are happier watch less TV than those who are unhappy. Further research reveals that for every hour of TV per day we watch, we are 5 percent less content than those of us who watch none. Those who watch a lot of TV generally have up to three times more yearning for material goods than nonwatchers.* A third study corroborates the aforementioned two by demonstrating that TV can reduce our life satisfaction up to 50 percent by causing us to form unrealistic views of life. We then draw conclusions and comparisons that can be hurtful to others and ourselves. It doesn't stop there. Television disconnects us from our reality and in its place creates an artificial life. In order to be a part of it, we feel compelled to keep turning on the TV. As the studies indicate, we then unknowingly get caught up in an endless downward spiral.
What TV does
* Authentic personality: Yearning for TV reality, we lead TV character-influenced lives.
* Time: Every hour plugged in to virtual reality is another hour of disconnect from natural reality.
* Observational skills: The more we passively watch and listen, the weaker our sensory skills become.
* Communication skills: The less we communicate, the less capable we become of communicating effectively.
* Relationship: Our natural world grows foreign as we become increasingly familiar with the world of TV. In Nature, we end up wandering around like strangers in a strange land.
* Money: We can't live entirely in TV reality, so we attempt to re-create it by surrounding ourselves with the consumer goods we see on TV.
How TV Stole Athabaskan Culture
“In 1980 the Gwich'in, an Athabaskan people who live in northern Alaska, the Yukon, and Canada's Northwest Territories, were introduced to something that they now refer to as an addiction. It was television. Traditional ways were set aside to make more and more room for watching TV. It became their cultural experience, and to participate in their new culture, they had to keep watching. Said one tribal member, "Television made us wish we were something else. It taught us greed and waste, and now everything that we were is gone."
So, what can be done? We don't have to passively accept life according to television. Like many Gwich'in are doing today, we can reclaim our natural culture, which is rooted in the Hoop of Life.
To Reclaim Our Nature-based Culture
* Do things that complement a healthy life.
* Less TV and reconnect with nature. Use our newfound time to get involved in those Nature-related activities we've dreamed about for so long but just couldn't find the time to begin.
By following these points we can transform our life as we know it. Instead of settling for the life of distraction and passivity offered by TV, we can again become actively engaged in our lives. Rather than being entertained, we will be having fun-and there is a world of difference between the two. “
- By Tamarack Song from the book Nature Speak.