Writing 11: Taking on Stress Link

Link to my profile:

View at Medium.com

https://medium.com/@ajparks\

Link to my post:

View at Medium.com

https://medium.com/@ajparks/taking-on-stress-3bfa43d39221

My project in writing is to typically write about topics that mean a lot to me. There are so many issues that go on in today’s world that a lot of people are unaware of, so spreading the word is very important to me. I also like to get very personal in my writing because I like people to know my standpoint on a topic and how it has affected me throughout my life. I really enjoy writing about other topics that interest me such as sports, statistics, world issues, and history. Writing about stress was a great topic for me because it is something that I have dealt with throughout my life and is an issue that has yet to be fixed that affects so many people throughout the world. 

In my essay “Taking on Stress”, I explain about how stress is a huge misconception in today’s world and the thing that has affected my life the most. I use Odell’s examples from Levi Felix and birdwatching/deep listening to not only prove that stress is a real issue in today’s world, but also talk about how I found new ways to deal with my stress. All human beings go through stressful times and our situations are all different, but we all need to find a better way to deal with our stress without giving into social media and the attention economy. I talk about how I found my way using Odell and how I have benefited from Odell’s examples and applied them to my own life. Maybe this can help you also.

Jenny Odell’s Aim in Writing – Assignment 2

Jenny Odell’s Aim in Writing Her Book – Assignment 2

The aim of Jenny Odell’s book, How to Do Nothing:  Resisting the Attention Economy, is to get her readers to re-examine his or her life by questioning how their lives are lived in a world that stresses capitalist productivity.  Odell accurately states that the world in which we currently live has become increasingly more technologically advanced; consequently, there have become fewer moments in our lives for doing nothing. 

We have, to a great extent, abandoned the simple life that previous generations lived.  Odell states that observation and enjoyment of natural public art should be considered as one way for us all to de-stress from our daily lives.  Our attention should be drawn more to pleasurable activities, such as beautiful music, displays of natural public art, such as breathtaking views of public parks, snow-topped mountain vistas, tropical oases, and glorious sunsets.

Another example of doing nothing, according to Jenny Odell, is when she writes in her book about a project entitled, Applause Encouraged, by Scott Polach, which took place at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, California several years ago.  The guests were invited to attend a formalized sunset event at the Monument to simultaneously watch the sun set.  The guests applauded its beauty (Odell 6).

Also, Odell maintains that “art” already in existence, rather than man-made, should be viewed subjectively by every individual as a productive way of doing nothing.  In addition, the author states that she finds existing artifacts “more interesting than anything I could possibly make” (Odell 5).  Observation of things such as antique soda bottles, sea glass, and even tiny sea creatures, for example, should capture the attention of those of us who wish to slow down in this fast-paced world we call home.

Jenny Odell also gives the reader an example of one of her favorite places to unwind and live simply with great pleasure by doing nothing:  sitting in the Rose Garden in Oakland, California, where she would enjoy nature in all its beauty!  The Rose Garden beckons visitors with its breathtaking gardens and myriad labyrinths where one can spend hours doing nothing more than enjoying the scenery and take a much-needed break.

A further example of auditory attention that the author gives is mentioned in Deep Listening, by Pauline Oliveros, a musician and composer (Odell 7).  Oliveros taught experimental music in San Diego in the 1970s where she scheduled groups in techniques designed to “bring some inner peace amid the violence and unrest of the Vietnam War” (Odell 7).  Oliveros also proposed that deep listening to sounds in our everyday lives would help to promote inner peace.  She noted that there is a difference between listening and hearing; hearing being the means we each physically perceive sound, but listening is the means in which we psychologically perceive the sound.  This auditory method of practicing doing nothing is something the author Odell uses to escape from the pressures of everyday life.  She professes that she has been involved in this practice for some time without realizing it.  She proclaims to be an avid bird watcher, noting that “I’ve always found it funny that it’s called bird-watching, because half if not more of bird-watching is actually bird-listening” (Odell 7).  She makes a point of the fact that observing birds doesn’t ask you to do anything.

Odell also mentions that her dad, who worked as a technician in the 1970s, became disillusioned with his job.  He had enough savings that he could quit work and live on the cheap, which he did for two years.  During that time, he read a lot, bicycled, fished, studied math and electronics, and taught himself the flute.  As Odell states, regarding her dad’s new awareness of the need for space to do nothing, “But that time also taught my dad about creativity, and the state of openness, and maybe even the boredom or nothingness, that it requires” (Odell 10).  He re-entered the work force “With renewed energy and a different perspective on his job, he went from technician to engineer, and has filed around twelve patents so far” (Odell 11.)  Her dad came to realize that whatever happened at work was just a small part of a much bigger picture.

The author also notes in her book that public, non-commercial spaces “demands nothing from you in order for you to enter, nor for you to stay; the most obvious difference between public space and other spaces is that you don’t have to buy anything, or pretend to want to buy something, to be there” (Odell 13). 

In general, we are overwhelmed and exhausted using our valuable time on this earth working on capitalist ventures and becoming obsessed with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.  We have become addicted to gaming systems, spending huge quantities of time on our smartphones, while neglecting face-to-face conversations with people and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation.

In summary, Jenny Odell seeks to give her readers her perspective on why we collectively and mindlessly value commercial productivity as being more important than doing nothing and suggests how we could learn from her example of creating space for ourselves and doing nothing.  We all should re-examine how we live our lives and to improve them by spending less time in the rat race and more time enjoying our limited existence in this world.  She is not asking us to change our lives but to rethink how we live them.  Every one of us should seriously consider Jenny Odell’s compelling argument for spending more time doing nothing. 

Discovering the Attention Economy

When I opened this book and read what Odell was saying I had to pause and first figure out, what is the attention economy? After some research on the internet I found that the attention economy is something that I am so used to, I didn’t even realize it was there. When I see an ad on Instagram for something based on a picture I just liked, that is the attention economy. The ad that plays before every Youtube video is the attention economy. The internet is monopolized by three companies: Google, Apple, and Facebook. But Google, Apple and Facebook don’t care about you as a person; they care about their revenue. This means they care about holding your attention. Their ultimate aim is to keep you scrolling and searching, using their products over competitors. Odell’s project is “a guide to doing nothing as an act of political resistance to the attention economy.”

Odell believes very strongly in the immoral monopoly that is social media. She also is very anti-capitalism. She believes that these two things are draining the life out of us. She uses a quote from Seneca that reads, “Look back in memory and consider… how many have robbed you of life when you were not aware of what you were losing, how much was taken up in useless sorrow, in foolish joy, in greedy desire, in the allurement of society, how little of yourself was left to you; you will perceive that you are dying before your season!” She connected this to not only spending your day on facebook, but also connected it to our society and how in a time where intelligent conversations are key, we find ourselves unable to achieve those crucial in-person conversations. 

Odell’s purpose is to fight this way of life. How does she want us to fight? By doing nothing. Now doing nothing is not like it seems. She describes her “nothing” as a plan of action. In the introduction she says, “ The point of doing nothing, as I define it, isn’t to return to work refreshed and ready to be more productive, but rather to question what we currently perceive as productive.” To me, she is trying to get her readers to look at life through a different lens. We are so comfortable with the life we live we never stop to question it. We let social media control our lives for what reason? To conform to society. Odell believes that the world we live in now due to the culture of Trump is “impatient with anything nuanced, poetic, or less-than-obvious” and social media is a big contributor to that. Individuality is frowned upon. The more you are like everyone else, the more people like you. The more people like you, the more followers you have on social media.  

Odell uses personal stories to try to get us to understand where she is coming from. She tells us personal stories and then connects them to her beliefs. She tells us a detailed story about a tree called “Old Survivor” that she connects to resistance and being rooted to your true self, which are both linked to her doing nothing philosophy. 

Throughout the first chapter she also talks about a rose garden. The part about the rose garden that really impacted me was when she was in the middle of this beautiful space, surrounded by every color, sight, and smell. In this moment she said, “I look down at my phone and wonder if it isn’t its own kind of sensory-deprivation chamber. That tiny, glowing world of metrics can not compare to this one, which speaks to me instead in breezes, light, and shadow, and the unruly, indescribable, detail of the real.” Growing up in the age of technology, this hit very deep. This makes me think of the concerts I’ve been to where every single person has their phone up instead of living in the moment. The time spent with friends and family, not enjoying eachothers company, but sitting on our phones. Everyone can relate to this which is what makes it so powerful. This connects to her belief in the evil in technology and makes you think of instances that technology has plagued your life. 

Odell’s project is to break us out of the society we are so used to. She wants us to realize we are trapped in this attention economy. She wants us to realize the negative effects social media and capitalism have on our lives. She wants us to start doing something about this, by doing nothing. On page 22, she describes doing nothing as almost a “deprogramming device”. While she gave us some overall themes of what “doing nothing” will entail, we will have to keep reading to really understand how she expects us to make this change. It could be things as little as to not look at the ads on our phones, to delete social media, or even as drastic as throwing our whole phone away to stay away from the toxicity of the attention economy and social media. While I’m hesitant to make that change, I am oddly excited to see what she has to say because the points she brings up really have me thinking.