Into the Wild Chapters 1-5

Your post is relatable because I struggle to separate myself from social media. No matter how hard I try, as you said, it is an inherent part of our society. It seems impossible to eliminate social media since we use it for communication. I am guilty of this, as I message more through social media than messages. It makes me wonder if it is even possible to cut out social media from our lives fully, or if it is something that we need to use in small doses. 

As a society, we want to abolish unhealthy aspects of our lives, such as indulging in sweets. However, that seems unrealistic. Most of the time, we relapse and feel guilty when we cannot quit. However, enjoying “unhealthy” parts of our lives can be good for us, in moderation of course. We often go to extremes to solve a problem, instead of coming up with a more realistic solution. Instead of cutting out all sweet treats, we can limit how often indulge ourselves in them. This can also be applied to social media. Of course, this is easier said than done, but it is a step in the right direction. As a whole, we need to give ourselves grace. 

Does it reasonable to limit your social media time, instead of deleting social media as a whole? Or do you believe it is better to quit? 

Although disconnecting was what McCandless needed to find himself, is doing something similar even viable for us? Is there an alternative to going that far? 

I agree with your post because for me it is hard to separate my life from social media. For me putting my phone down for a little bit is okay but getting rid of social media as a whole would be so hard. As teenagers and being our age we grew up in a society that is based around social media and I think that shaped all of us into who we are.

Society does things so odd, we can get rid of bad products or not healthy foods but social media as a whole is very determental, and harms us in more ways than other. But the social norm is social media itself. Even thorough social media. Though social media isn't a object its still as harmful as a object. I get that social media is used for good things just like unhealthy food or bad products could be used from time to time but social media has its purposes for sure.

Would you go on a deep social media cleanse? Or just take a hour of each day to put the phone down and do something productive?

Christopher took a bigger step to "deep" cleansing, do you ever think you could go to that extreme?

I definitely agree that giving up social media would be difficult. I think it is on a lot of peopleś minds, so your post is very relatable! Social media also seems to be a way that a lot of young people are getting their information on current events, so it's growing in prevalence in that sense.

Personally, I don't think I would ever choose to give up social media entirely for a lot of the same reasons that you explained; it's a way that people stay connected, so giving it up keeps you out of the loop. I give up social media a little bit when I'm forced to, like when I go on camping, similar to Chris McCandless. Even so, I have someone keep my streaks, and social media is always the first thing that I look at when I get internet back.

A lot of older people also seem to believe that social media is harmful, and I think that that's partially due to the fact that it is more foreign to them. I do think though that social media has some good benefits too- it's a place where people can create community, have an outlet for creativity, and stay updated on current events.

This all makes me wonder if there are any social media apps that are less/more harmful than others. Like is TikTok a better app to use than Snapchat? Obviously this is mostly subjective, but it might be a good way to ease out of social media use for people who want to.

I agree with you, giving up social media would be great and honestly could benefit a lot of people. but it definitely would effect how you'd be able to interact with society and your friends. 

I don't know if id be able to fully give social media up though because of the social aspect. most of my interaction with my friends is through snapchat though so I think it would be very hard for me personally. 

as a whole I think the world could be a slightly better place without social media because people wouldn't be comparing themselves to other online or being jealous about what others have and show online that they don't have.

Is there anything that you would miss about social media? I can think of a few things I would. 

I agree with you. I wouldn't be able to give up my phone and my life. I would also like to give up social media but at the same time I feel as though I would be left out of the loop. Deleting social media would definitely decrease drama and jealousy. Social media is a big factor of society in today's age, which is tough.

Would there be a social media you would be able to give up? What do you think life would be like without social media at all?

I find it interesting the was you explained the extreme that Chris took his separation from society, such as abandoning his car with and money with not really a plan on how he'll do day to day, and the way that similarly, you would like to travel but not in such an intense way. the way you describe it makes it sound like that extreme is unnecessary for you. 

my biggest concern going on an adventure like Chris would also be when will my next shower be. I don't think I could do what he did for that exact reason honestly id feel to gross and not be able to focus on anything else. but it does sound nice to be able to really travel where ever you want. 

I wonder how many other people in the world feel the same and want to be able to be free and travel all around with no repercussions. I think that if travel and adventure like Chriss' was more normal that a lot more people would do it especially with how people feel negatively towards society. 

other then not knowing when your next shower would be is there anything else similar that would be what you were most nervous about or would be a concern?

Your comment about not liking technology surprised me, as it has slowly become a more integral part of our lives. It seems odd to dislike something that is a part of our everyday lives, however, it is not an unpopular sentiment. 

I love my phone. Mostly. It gives me a plethora of benefits that I would not have otherwise. I can stay out with friends because my parents have my location. I can order products from across the country with the click of a button. However, I am not blind to the drawbacks it can have. A bunch of misinformation is at the tip of our fingers, which blurs our vision of reality. I am a victim of this, especially with the election. The internet is an unsafe place, yet, we are expected to be able to manage our way through it. 

Technology can suck us in so easily, which leads to unhealthy amounts of screen time. However, what can we do? How do we combat this when apps are becoming more addicting? Companies have purposefully cultivated their apps to draw us in, and it is becoming harder to close an app. What are we, consumers, supposed to do about it? Companies have pushed the responsibility of managing what we consume through technology. Should all the responsibility be placed on the consumer?

Your statement about technology seems to be slowly getting more popular, while most of us truly love the benefits of technology many feel like the negative out ways the positive. In my opinion it is becoming more popular especially in teens to realize how much their screen time affects them, while we are aware not many of us choose to do anything about that. Fortunately, it seems like there are a good amount of people who comment on how terrible their screen time is and choose to fix it. 

I find technology to be extremely useful and beneficial, it's so easy for me to buy things, do my schoolwork, and accomplish just about anything. I use my laptop quite a bit for my LRTC class because it can help me have access to so many useful visuals that really help me out when there's miscommunication. 

I think the best part about the technology we have now is how greatly its helped people. The way that it has helped out in the first responder and medical fields is crazy, it's scary to think about how we would be living if we didn't have the advanced technology now.

 I do wonder though, is it all technology or specifically your phone and the social media aspect. Youve talked about your love for music and cameras, is there a love hate relationship there?

I have very conflicting feelings about this post. I do agree that "fun drinks" tend to burn holes in pockets (mine), but I'm not sure I'd consider them a waste of money. Like you mentioned they tend to become a part of our daily routines, and brighten our days. I can't think of one time that getting Aroma Joe's has made my mood worse. So with all that being said, of course the money spent on fun drinks could be saved, but I would never get the same satisfaction as taking that first sip of a rush.

This post also makes me realize you are much stronger than I am, as I could never chose to give this up. My first idea for this assignment was the same as yours, but I took a moment and realized I could never actually give that up.

I wonder how many in the country have a caffeine addiction, and if these drinks didn't contain caffeine would people still be purchasing them? I know I would but I wonder if for some it's solely the caffeine addiction other are willing to pay for an 8 dollar drink daily.

Were you at Aromas on Lisbon st earlier today sunny? Whats your go to fun drink?

I agree that makeup would be a difficult thing to give up, especially when it becomes part of the everyday routine. I wake up every morning and do mine, and I think it would be hard to give it up completely. It's a shame that society has so much focus on the way people look when really it is what is inside that matters. "Don't judge a book by its cover" has become mostly obsolete, especially with so much online presence, and people only showing their 'cover'. Going without makeup shouldn't be frowned upon, and be judged because you look "tired or sick or mean" when that doesn't represent you as a person whatsoever.

This makes me wonder why people care so much about the superficial. Why does the way people express themselves matter? I have never understood why society is so judgemental, especially towards women. There are so many beauty influencers, that girls can be insecure and unhappy with the way that they look, with so many standards around "the perfect body". 

Some influencers do express their natural beauty online, without makeup. (Here is a link in case you're interested https://curology.com/blog/8-instagrammers-who-celebrate-natural-beauty/ ) 

Girls, would you be able to give up makeup (if you wear it)? Do you think society would look at you differently? 

The post you've made is very relatable 🙂, and I understand when you ignore the alarms you set up. It reminds me about how I do the same thing all the time with my phone alarm and how I like to push the limits a little bit. Because when it rings at the start of the morning, lets say 4:00 am, I never respond to it and then I have put on another alarm the hour after at 5:00 Am, but then usually just like you I resist to wake up from my warm sleep. However even if alarms sound annoying, those alarms help me for the reason that a repetitive reminder is, which is  actually coerce myself to do complete tasks like stepping of my blankets and seize the day 

But I hope everyone can understand that as it gets colder outside in the wintertime, it kinda sucks as the low temperatures goes and permeates through rooms, especially apartments, making me getting out of my bed like i'm stepping in an ice floor, ice room and with ice doors, even if the heaters on! So yeah, waking up is definitely hard to do, and why not just curl up and forget whatever's happening. 

Man, I wish I could forget things like a job or school and live without an alarm clock, However I like to have a routine and schedule to motivate myself and do different things, like practicing music or just getting my blood flowing, but just not with the big expectations like going to school and spending ours to learn something I'll forget. I'm sure that was apart of Chris McCandless frustrations too, as of being required by society to do work that seems to impede on what people desire, but he seemed to be an enthusiastic person who would do anything, so It depends that if he really wanted to do things that he liked that others sometimes would perfer to divert from. Moving on, what could help me get to that point of productivity fully (because I do catch myself lacking sometimes)is to be naturally and fully rested like you said your dream was to be, notify me of when you have that skill fully mastered. Yet in reality, that can possibly happen if you can work on maintaining a balanced circadian rhythm, a 24 hour cycle to what impacts your body depending on sleep. Down below is a source from national health institutes to help with and I will probably discern for help as well.  Hope this helps with an Idea of a schedule to utilize from. 

More of what it is.

https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/circadian-rhythms.

Treatments.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/circadian-rhythm-disorders/treatment

Question:  What would you do if job and school schedules weren't a problem?  If clocks weren't Invented, would the world in chaos or would we just learn to adapt? 

I love this post so much! Everything you said is so relatable as waking up in the morning with an alarm is unbearable. However, waking up at the same time without an alarm hits differently. I think it is because, like you said, I have a desire to wake up while an alarm forces me. I never realized how much I hate alarms until this post, as I ignored the annoyance because it was an integral part of my day. Before my junior year, I was fine waking up with an alarm. Somehow it never managed to bother me, which looking back, I find strange. 

I would have to disagree with you, the way we built our environment would make it impossible for someone to get rid of alarms. Getting rid of the alarm is almost impossible, as how would we know when to wake up? Is it even possible to do that, as we've built our society around time? This makes sense, as we only have so much time in our lives, but it feels inconvenient. Additionally, I do not think we could get the entire world to stop its reliance on schedules which causes the need for alarms. Similar to technology, it is not a necessity to live, but alarms feel inherent to our lives.

Is there an alternative to alarm clocks? Are there any changes we could make in our society so we could disregard the need for an alarm clock? Or is there a way to make waking up more enjoyable, or is waking up against our will a necessary evil?

I love how relatable this is. Alarm clocks are just far too abrasive in the morning, I don't want to feel startled the first second of my morning, on the other hand if they weren't so loud and sudden would anyone really wake up to them? 

Personally, I do nothing but fight with my alarm, I have multiple alarms set between 5:30 and 6:40 if I wake up any later than that I'm not going to school. Waking up to my alarm just puts me in a terrible mood, I somehow already have a headache, I'm exhausted and it's just very unpleasant, waking up on your own just puts you in a better mindset in my opinion.

It's interesting that there's people who aren't really morning people and then others who wake up at 4:30 and go workout and then get ready for the day and make breakfast and do household chores all before going to school or work.

Are you generally a morning person and you just don't like the alarm, or does waking up just cause you to be grumpy in general?

I don't think I could give up my knickknacks, so the fact that you would is eye-opening. I love my clutter, just as you do, and I fear that having a cleaner space wouldn't be worth the sadness I would receive from such minimalism, and the lack of memorabilia. 

This makes me wonder if other people see my clutter as garbage, or a mess taking away from the aesthetic of my bedroom. This makes me realize that other people can be connected to special objects just as I am, and see the joy a single knickknack can bring.

As a kid, I used to watch YouTube videos of people getting their homes cleaned, or professionally organized, (Safiya Nygaard has a few good ones in case you are interested) and wish I had the ambition to clean up my own disaster. However, now that I am older, I have realized that my space doesn't have to be white-wash perfect like some of the modern decor we see now. 

Does anyone else feel like their items are important to them in more than just a "this is my favorite item" kind of way? Does anyone feel especially attached to certain objects?

I think that nicknacks are a really interesting thing to try to give up because most people don't tend to view them as being harmful. Even so, I get where you're coming from, because small things tend to add up over time and create a stressful clutter. 

I don't know if I personally would be able to give something like that up because nicknacks aren't just one small thing, they're a collection of small things that I've amalgamated over time, and most of them mean something to me. They're also somewhat easy to ignore as they can be tucked away in a box or on a windowsill. I guess if I can ignore them while I have them, I wouldn't miss them that much if they were gone, but just the thought of it is a bit sad.

I also think that nicknacks can be representative of who a person really is, so there's sort of a larger picture there. Like if people don't have those small, trivial items, what makes them who they are? In a way, nicknacks are a reflection of someone's memories and life.

I wonder if you feel a lot of attachment to your nicknacks, making it hard to give them up, or if it's just like removing clutter from your room.

I think it's interesting that knickknacks is what you decided to give up. I don't collect or find comfort in small objects, personally I find them to be more clutter than anything, but I do enjoy keeping around some small items here and there that have meaning from something I've done or somewhere I've been. 

I find knickknacks to be very fun in many ways, although I do not have any knickknacks of my own, I always think it's fun to hear the stories behind them and I appreciate how people have such strong connections to them.

Sometimes they can be very bittersweet though, when I'm in any antique or thrift store and see a collection of little figurines, it's so funny to think about who had them before and what memories those trinkets symbolized for them. On the other and I feel that's its quite sad due to the fact they've probably passed, and their family members had no memories tied to them, so they got rid of them.

What are some of your most meaningful trinkets? Do you ever think about who will get the pleasure of having you're knickknacks sitting on their nightstand, maybe a future daughter or son, or perhaps a younger family member like a sibling or cousin? 

With your very conflicting ideas on spending money but yet going against the responsibility of having money as well, I find that i'm looking into myself with this piece as it communicates such feelings of dealing with the double standard. I think sometimes that people often find themselves hating currencies and wealth but then again we are looking for wealth or say a great amassing of something to indulge in our fantasies, Nonetheless, it is more than money and it is often having to leave socializing in which fills our cup.  

I think if we didn't have currency, i'd be hard for transactions to occur unless your trading food or essential items like a car or whatever for big purchases, but after all a legit transaction such as simply trading a soda can for a hairbrush could be as viable. Then with all these trading policies you begin to lose what you've earned or what you worked hard to keep is gone and maybe traded by a less valuable item. 

You know what they say, Money is a crime, Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie {Pink Floyd} and just that money as recyclable it may be, it's one of these cycles that brings pain and joy at the same time.

Which makes me think, If money wasn't a problem what other item correlates to the same feeling of deceptive but a euphoric force? 

I agree with you, I also enjoy the little day-to-day things. I wouldn't be able to give up any of the activities to mentioned. If I had to choose, I would also give up money. I would rather still have my family and friends. Granted there are other things I'd rather give up completely, like social media.

I see a lot of people are addicted to TikTok, though I am not because I don't use this social media. Discarding this app for quick videos would definitely have drawbacks from habit, and watching the positive and helpful content, which you would miss out on. 

Although I do not use TikTok, I do use Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts from time to time, and I know that these platforms receive news later than TikTok, and are late to all the trends. Going without TikTok wouldn't necessarily mean you might get FOMO but I understand that fear. This makes me think about how people always want to know what's going on, and social media has become an outlet for news more than "News". 

In case you are legitimately thinking about dropping TikTok, most other social media platforms have a variation of the short videos you see there. 

How do you decide what is fake publicity and what is real news on TikTok?

I agree that not having money would definitely be a big issue for a lot of people, but I think that it's interesting to think about people who may live completely without money. I don't necessarily think that not having money means you don't have anything.

For instance, like most kids, I didn't have money for the first decade or so of my life, but I still had things. Of course, my parents had money which is why I was still able to live normally, so it's definitely different than Chris McCandless's situation, but kids do have that same sort of freedom from consumerism or capitalism (etc. etc.) like McCandless was hoping for. As such, having no money is not necessarily as unheard of as people may originally believe. Children are still functioning members of society, just without all of the independence that adults tend to have.

Also, before money was a thing in the form of a cash currency, people bartered and traded and upheld full societies without the money that we are familiar with in modern day. It's interesting to think about what it might be like to go back to that, like McCandless does. Would it improve society or damage it?