I occasionally get into a rut where I spend a lot of time on the computer. I’m not necessarily doing anything terribly productive, but often I feel as though I should be, binding me to the monitor. I tell myself I need to get out and go for a hike, even a short one, but that ultimately proves to be futile. On the flipside, I’ll have days where I’m incredibly productive at the computer, editing photos, editing videos, helping a local non-profit or two, doing web design work, etc. And yet, at the end of the day, all of it feels empty, like I did nothing at all. Not even my standing desk can counteract those feelings.
Then there are days where I can convince myself to go for a 15 minute walk to break up the monotony of being indoors. I go to sleep easier on those days. It’s as if I saw something simple outside that browsing all the photography on the Internet couldn’t bring that just settled my nerves a little more. Even just reading a chapter in a book before going to sleep helps immensely. Slowly but surely, I finally put the dots together. It was something I always knew and preached intellectually, but had never really learned from my own actions.
The more time spent on the computer, the less fulfilled my day feels. But why is that? I’m being productive. I’m getting things done. Why should completing a lot of digital work feel any different than completing a lot of tangible work.
No matter how amazing screen resolutions get, you’re still not looking at the actual thing. You’re not looking at the Teton Mountains. You’re not looking at Yosemite Valley. That’s not really even Star Wars that you’re watching. That media is just an illusion. It’s an interpretation only, built in a language human eyes never evolved to truly perceive, something that gets lost in entire worlds and “realities” that we’ve constructed online. It’s empty. It’s just a reconstruction of a representation of an actual thing. No amount of digital interpretations and representations can make up for physically seeing something, or feeling something tangible. It’s why playing outside is so much healthier than being inside. It’s why reading the exact same book in print vs digitally helps you retain and connect with it better. It’s why photographers still lament the loss of film. Manipulating pixels in order to affect other pixels and watching the process happen rather than physically manipulating circumstances to produce the outcome simply doesn’t have the same feel, so to speak.
No matter how productive I am, I’m still just staring at pixels that are arranged and lit in a way to try to imitate reality. Sitting on the computer, trying to fill that void is like trying to grasp the scale of the Grand Canyon by reading about it on Wikipedia. You might find a satisfying fact or two, but it’s an empty experience that doesn’t provide the tangible wonder that engages all five senses that a human needs to feel to have a fulfilling experience. It’s why traveling is becoming a larger and larger industry every year. As people get more and more connected to the digital world whether through work or free time, there’s a void left in what’s really needed that they innately know needs to be filled. Unfortunately, many people forget to undo their stress before their vacation and wind up bringing all the same stresses with them, and thus, disallowing nature to fulfill its intended role in reestablishing a balance in the human spirit. They’re the ones who typically say they need a vacation from their vacation. They don’t need a vacation from a vacation. They just need to spend a day freely exploring the outdoors free from itineraries and agendas to let the human spirit explore and discover on its own time.
When it all comes down to it, humans are meant to be in the fresh air, hearing the sounds of streams and waves, feeling a breeze against their skin, watching the sun rise and set against the horizon, exploring the cosmos above, and acquiring information and knowledge through tangible sensations. Staring at a false representation of it doesn’t have the same effect. When used properly, digital media should inspire you to get out and create, not take the place of it.