Ancestral Environment

Recently in class we discussed the ancestral environment and how there is a big difference between twenty-four hours in the woods and twenty-four hours in front of our television. The author suggested that being in the woods we are subjected to more information and that we are more aware because there is a sense of danger. I too feel like we are subjected to more information in the woods and that there is a completely different reaction to the wood surroundings. I myself love the outdoors; I find it fun to go camping and whitewater rafting. When you are outside, I think we pay more attention to our surroundings because it is different and exciting. When you are sitting in front of the television there are just a lot of commercials trying to get us to by stuff that we don’t need and mostly the same sort of shows playing. In the woods there is more of a feeling of what is going on. You can feel the wind, the breeze, the warmth, the sun, and so on. While watching television you are subjected to what is going on and don’t ever get to experience the sensations that you are watching. I believe that no matter how hard we try we can not fully mimic these sensations. It is like when you ride a rollercoaster you can get the sensation of falling; however, you can just say to yourself it is a rollercoaster it is not real. When you know that something can’t hurt you there is a different reaction than if you know something can hurt you (for example a man coming at you in a hunted house with a knife verse a man coming at you with a knife on the streets). The ancestral environment gives you this sense of real while the technological environment can never offer this sense of reality.