Throughout Walden, Thoreau writes, cuts, sharpens, and reshapes his own language, which tells us what he wants his readers to understand. This is clear in the “Spring” chapter , where his manuscript drafts and the final published version reveal a shift toward clarity, purpose, and cyclical thinking.

1.Thoreau removes excess, repetition, and hesitation so spring becomes clearer, more purposeful. In the manuscript , Thoreau writes in his manuscript draft of the ground becoming “completely partially bare of snow.” and a long, wandering list of plants. These repeated phrases like, “as if not till then their beauty was ripe” appears twice. While in the published version, he tightens the language to “partially bare of snow.” The lists are shorter and more organized and the repeated “ripe” metaphor appears only once. Thoreau’s revisions make spring feel more decisive and direct. Instead of a hesitant, cluttered transition, spring becomes a clear moment of renewal. This supports that spring models the kind of purposeful renewal humans must choose in society.

2.He then goes on to remove the chaotic, tangled ecosystem catalog and replaces it with a more balanced, harmonious one. The manuscript lists off these elements, “asters, goldenrods, thistles, sedges, reeds, rushes, wild oats, cotton grass, cat-tail, mulleins, hardhack, meadow-sweet”. The draft is sprawling, almost overwhelming, like an ecosystem in full complexity. He simplifies in the published version to “life-everlasting, golden-rods, pinweeds, wild grasses, cotton-grass, cat-tails, mulleins, johnswort, hard-hack, meadow-sweet.” The revision shifts the tone from chaotic abundance to a coherent interdependence. In a similar way, society functions like an ecosystem, but one whose patterns can be recognized and understood, not random or overwhelming.

3.Thoreau also removes the architectural comparisons’ complexity and keeps only the essential metaphor. From the manuscript version of this section, he uses the Greek classical order of architecture, such as ionic, corinthian doric, and composite. Whereas in the published version, he refers to it as “an antique style, older than Greek or Egyptian.” When making this change, Thoreau simplifies the metaphor so it’s not about showing off knowledge, but rather it is about making a clear connection between natural forms and human cultural forms. This change also represents how human society mirrors natural patterns.

4.In the published version of Walden, In the original manuscript the sentence, “laws and figures which first existed in the mind of man.” is a long philosophical sentence about astronomy, which he then replaces with a cleaner analogy in the published version, “…have the same relation to types already in the mind of man that astronomy has.”. This revision makes the analogy sharper while also reflecting on the patterns of nature already present in the human mind. These patterns show how humans instinctively follow natural cycles, renewal, hesitation, and conflicts just like ecosystems do.

5.Another revision in the published version of Walden that is important to make note of is how Thoreau keeps and strengthens the final contrast of winter as gentile, not tyrannical. In both versions of Walden, Thoreau keeps this claim about winter, however the published version can be perceived as much cleaner than the manuscript. In the manuscript , winter is referred to as “rude and boisterous tyrant” but in the published version, he reframes it as “gentle, delicate, tender”. This revision emphasizes the importance of recognizing winter not as an enemy of spring, but rather that winter is necessary in preparation for spring. Thoreau’s revision to this specific moment also brings light to the conflict that stagnation in society is not an endpoint, but rather a part of the stages that lead to renewal if people can recognize the cycle.

The revisions make spring’s emergence more focused, cyclical, and interconnected, reinforcing the idea that Thoreau uses spring to model how society functions like an ecosystem whose progress depends on recognizing natural patterns and choosing renewal, action, and cooperation.

Beck Fox, Skylar Riedell, Jaidyn Vorpahl

Introduction

“Brute Neighbors,” as its name would suggest, centers around the “neighbors” Thoreau had in his cabin property. It is no secret that Henry Thoreau had a deep respect for the natural world and the wildlife around him. The cabin gave him, so far from the hustle and bustle of a town that moved too fast for creatures of such a natural world to want anything to do with, a chance to become particularly in tune with the animals and the wildlife that he came across, particularly the wilder kind that have not been integrated into civilization. This could range from interactions with these creatures as they occasionally made their way into his house to appreciative and thoughtful observations on how their different minds could work. There are mice that occasionally sneak into his cabin or birds that make their nests near his wild living space. Thoreau considers himself lucky to be so close to creatures that may otherwise go their entire lives without ever being seen by mankind. For our purposes, it is a recount of coming upon a mouse and a mother bird that we take the most interest in.

Version A

In Version A, paragraph 9, Thoreau describes two experiences that reveal different aspects of nature and his relationship with it. First, he tells the story of finding a bird’s nest in the path of his plow, which he moved in an effort to save the birds and their nest. However, after the nest was moved, the parent birds abandoned the babies, leaving them to die. Through this story, Thoreau seems to suggest that although humans try to help nature, we don’t always fully understand it or know what is best for it. After telling the story of the birds, Thoreau shifts to an experience with a mouse. At first, the mouse is fearful of him, but the mouse eventually gains enough comfort to eat cheese out of Thoreau’s hand. This interaction displays a more intimate and trusting side of nature by showing the connection that humans can have with animals. While describing the mouse, Thoreau compares it to other creatures, like squirrels or flies. These comparisons suggest that he sees commonalities among different living things and recognizes the ways that animals and humans interact with the world around them.

Version A does not ascribe to the later manuscript editions’ chapter organization. In this manner, what became “Brute Neighbors” paragraph 9 initially followed “Spring” 25b. After writing his recollections of the field mouse, Thoreau returned to this leaf to pencil in the story about the downed nest. This may have been done to ease the transition between “Spring” 25b, which discusses the birds of Walden pond, and the closer nature encounter with the field mouse.

Version E

In Version E, paragraph 8 is seen for the first time, where Thoreau questions animals’ existence and purpose. He seems to be thinking about animals’ place and responsibility in the world and their role with one another and with nature itself. This leads him into paragraph 9, which introduces his experience with the mice. In earlier versions, paragraph 9 included both the mouse and bird stories. In Version E, however, Thoreau removes the bird story and focuses solely on the mouse. In the manuscript, the bird story is written in ink, while paragraph 8 is written in pencil between those lines. Because of this, it is unclear which section was written first, and both possibilities can be argued. The reasons to believe the ink came first are that the rest of the page was written in pen, so he probably wrote the whole page in pen first and added the pencil later; the pencil is also written pretty precisely between the lines of the font, which makes it seem like it was added with the knowledge of how the pen was formatted; the font size throughout the page is the same in the pen, and the pencil-written font size is much smaller; and the transition from Thoreau’s musing about the society he left in paragraph 8 to his firsthand experience with animals is much smoother. Paragraph 8 was likely included as a direct replacement for the original transition phrase, which dealt with Thoreau’s appreciation for nature despite being a hunter. This is clear because this phrase is actually separated from the rest of paragraph 9’s text that got deleted, which was about Thoreau attempting to save the nest of a ground bird. While dissecting Walden, we went back and forth on which possibility seemed more likely, but we ultimately decided that we believe the ink came first and then the pencil.

Meanwhile, the ground bird story as a whole was probably deleted because the story with the mouse simply got the point of Thoreau’s compassion across more. The story of the mouse simply details Thoreau feeding a mouse that happened upon his cabin. The ground bird story mentions Thoreau moving a ground bird’s nest out of the way so he wouldn’t plow it, only to find the birds were still doomed as their parents had abandoned the nest. Not only is this a useless story to add within a paragraph revolving around compassion, but it is also possible that Thoreau accidentally doomed these birds by misplacing the nest, and didn’t want to put his mistake in the paragraph about compassion.

Experience and Challenges

One of the biggest challenges while working on this project was the manuscript itself. Thoreau would frequently move sections of his writing around, interline them with pencil text, or cross them out entirely. Page 784, from Version E of the manuscript, contains an entire section of ink that Thoreau brought over from “Brute Neighbors” paragraph 9 in Version A. This section was then interlined with the pencil text that became paragraph 8 and eventually crossed out entirely as Thoreau grew tired of it. Although a great window into his creative process, it also left the manuscript page chaotic and hard to understand. In places, the text overlapped with itself, and words—written in Thoreau’s spiderweb-esque handwriting—often became illegible.

Another challenge we had was interpreting why Thoreau made certain revisions. It was hard to keep track of what he changed throughout different versions, but it was a whole different challenge to interpret why he made those changes. Thoreau’s writing tends to be pretty abstract, and sometimes even identifying the point he is trying to make in one version is hard in and of itself. But when it came to not only interpreting what was being said but also interpreting his revisions and why he made them, it was very challenging. It’s also hard to narrow down our best theories as to why Thoreau made the revisions he did, because sometimes there are so many possibilities.

One small blessing was the presence of the Walden fluid text. Referencing the existing transcriptions was the difference between total confusion and understanding. Words in Thoreau’s script often resembled others (“and” and “sod” being a common issue for me), and the fluid text offered needed clarity. However, the fluid text itself is not without flaws. Consistency in transcription style was at times lacking, and some minor edits were missing completely. In these cases, someone more familiar with the manuscript was consulted to decipher the text.

That being said, sometimes referencing between the fluid text and the manuscript proved to be a nightmare. The fluid text tended to lump things together based on where they ended up in the final version of Walden. However, they would actually be in an entirely different order in the manuscript, so actually finding the manuscripts would always be a struggle. One example was struggling to find where the opening sentence to paragraph nine was, only to find it smack in the middle of the paragraph within the script, in incredibly small and hard-to-read pencil.

By Daphne Paul-LaRonca, Ellie Clodfelter, Makenzie Gardiner, Kendra Brace

Walden by Henry David Thoreau is a work that attempts to bring the reader closer in their relationship to nature and living deliberately. When looking through the different versions of the manuscript, we found the choice of tense in his writing to often be intentional to make particular points about nature and the self. When analyzing paragraph 15 of “Spring,” Thoreau demonstrates an impressive manipulation and understanding of the four different types of past tenses, particularly past perfect tense and continuous past tense. By using the past perfect tense, he creates a sense of distance between him and the nature he is observing by completing his action. This approach invites the reader to consider the deeper meaning of the natural phenomena he describes, rather than focusing on Thoreau as a character and what he is doing. The addition of a new concluding sentence then turns the paragraph into a reflective meditation on the cyclical nature of spring, ending that day and starting a new one in the next paragraph.

Additionally, Thoreau’s choice of tense lends the observations a quality of truth. Spring, as a season, recurs, and Thoreau’s reflections on it are meant to resonate beyond a single, fleeting moment as he records several days within the season. By using the past tense, he suggests that these experiences are not unique to a particular year but are part of a larger, ongoing cycle. This aligns with Thoreau’s broader goals in Walden to rediscover and articulate truths about nature and human existence that transcend the limitations of time and place to a wide audience and encourage them to also take the time to slow down in their daily lives.

The actual changes Thoreau makes are precise in diction and description that make the scene more lively and vivid. For example in version A Thoreau concludes paragraph 15 with “As I stood at the door, I could hear the rush of their wings”. He changes this in version E to “Standing at my door, I could hear the rush of their wings”. The very subtle change from “As I stood at the door” to “standing at my door” creates a more exciting and lively feeling for the readers as it is easier to envision oneself as Thoreau. Another example can be found when Thoreau is describing the geese he encountered. He changes “clanking” from version A to “honking” in version E to find the richest sensory details to describe the sound of the geese. https://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/iiif/p16003coll16/887/268,245,2554,1476/full/0/default.jpg

By adding the concluding sentence in “Spring” paragraph 15, Thoreau created closure. Shutting the door literally and metaphorically creates closure for the readers as they finish paragraph 15 and begin the next paragraph which begins with “In the morning…” Spring is the season of rebirth, change and transition, which is for Thoreau’s experience as he is learning new lessons at Walden Pond for the meaning of life. Thoreau tirelessly grapples with the correct verb tense to use, which can be seen directly on the manuscript. In paragraph 15 version A, Thoreau crosses out words to change the narrative from past to present, showing he was actively in a state of revision. For someone who was trying to live simplistically, Thoreau truly could not decide the perfect verb tense to make his story as meaningful as he could. In version E he finally decides to keep the paragraph 15 in the past tense because his descriptions and verbs create enough liveliness for the reader. Even just the phrase “suddenly driving toward my house” absolutely creates a sense of anticipation and action for readers, that is not always achievable in the past tense. https://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/iiif/p16003coll16/238/1747,3104,6291,710/full/0/default.jpg

When doing this project, we faced many challenges including finding the correct manuscript pages as well as coming up with a hypothesis. When using the manuscript search tool on the digital Thoreau website, we found that we were not able to find the section we needed in version E. In order to insert the paragraph into our tei file we had to manually search all of the pages for the paragraph. We also struggled with finding a strong hypothesis that we enjoyed. This stemmed from changing the paragraphs that we wanted to use multiple times. It became difficult as the changes we found were very small but also extremely meaningful.

To overcome the challenge of identifying a strong hypothesis, we looked to explain the impact of details that to some, could be described as insignificant. In Walden Thoreau’s precise writing style conveys meaning even apart from what he is actually saying, so we were fascinated by his journey of meticulously crafting sentences. In the end we found that the effect of Thoreau’s use of vivid descriptions and verbs even while using the past tense, is what makes Walden so special. After all, a philosophical memoir about the meaning of life should immerse readers and allow them to feel the impact of his observations, so they can look to apply it to their own experience.

Introduction

In the “Economy” chapter of Walden, Henry David Thoreau argues that luxury and material comfort weaken humanity, while simplicity allows for wisdom, independence, and moral growth. By comparing Version A, Version B, and the published version of the passage, it becomes clear that Thoreau did not simply revise for grammar or style. Instead, he deliberately reshaped the passage to make his argument more universal, more philosophical, and more authoritative. Thoreau’s revisions to this passage reveal a deliberate effort to transform an emotionally charged personal critique of luxury into a polished philosophical argument that presents simplicity as a universal moral principle rather than an individual opinion.

Link to Full Page Manuscript:

Link to Partial Page Manuscript:

From General Complaint to Focused Argument

The earliest draft begins with a broad and awkward construction. Paragraph 19 of version A says, “To the elevation and ennoblement of mankind what are called the luxuries & many of the comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances.” In the published version, Thoreau revises the sentence into, “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” This revision changes the focus and rhythm of the sentence completely. Rather than beginning abstractly with “the elevation and ennoblement of mankind,” the published version immediately foregrounds “luxuries” and “comforts,” making the critique more direct and forceful. The phrase “so-called comforts” is especially important because it introduces irony and skepticism. Thoreau implies that society falsely labels unnecessary material possessions as necessities (Litcharts). This change supports the idea that his revisions were philosophical as well as stylistic. He wanted readers to question whether comfort itself might actually prevent spiritual and intellectual growth.

Universalizing the Philosophical Tradition

Another major revision occurs when Thoreau expands his discussion of ancient philosophers.Version A states, “The ancient philosophers, were a class of men than whom none were have been poorer in respect to outward riches, none so rich in inward.” In Version B and the published text, Thoreau revises the sentence to include, “Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek…” This addition broadens the argument significantly. Simplicity is no longer associated with only one philosophical tradition, instead, Thoreau presents it as a universal value shared across civilizations. This revision reflects Transcendentalist interests in Eastern philosophy and comparative religion (Walden Woods Project). One of the most revealing revisions appears in Version B, where Thoreau briefly writes, “and I may add Christ as a more popular example perhaps.” However, this reference disappears entirely from the published version. The deletion is important because it suggests that Thoreau intentionally moved away from relying on Christian authority (Walden Woods Project). By removing Christ as an explicit example, he makes the argument broader and more philosophical. The published text presents simplicity as a universal truth rather than a specifically Christian ideal.

Revising the Definition of a Philosopher

The most dramatic revisions occur in section 19b, where Thoreau defines what it means to be a philosopher. Version B contains emotionally charged criticism when it states, “We are pigmies and dwarfs,”and “Where are the progenitors of a nobler race of men?” These statements disappear entirely from the published version. /Their removal suggests that Thoreau recognized that excessive emotional rhetoric weakened the seriousness of his argument. Instead of attacking society with dramatic insults, the final version adopts a calmer and more authoritative tone. Thoreau also revises several awkward sentences into more balanced and polished prose. Version B states, “To be a philosopher is not even to have subtle thoughts, and found a school, merely…” The final version becomes, “To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school…” This revision improves readability and rhythm while reinforcing the concise style that defines Walden. The final sentence feels more controlled and memorable, suggesting that Thoreau revised carefully for rhetorical impact.

Philosophy as a Practice Rather Than a Theory

One of the most revealing revisions concerns Thoreau’s belief that philosophy must be lived rather than merely discussed. Version B says, “With the actual life of man for the problem, to see how you can solve it!” In the published version, this changes to, “It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.” The revision transforms a dramatic personal statement into a universal philosophical principle. Rather than sounding spontaneous or emotional, the final version reads like a carefully considered moral claim. This change strongly supports the hypothesis that Thoreau revised the passage in order to increase its philosophical authority. He consistently removes emotional excess and replaces it with clarity, balance, and universality.

Conclusion

The revisions across Version A, Version B, and the published version reveal a clear pattern in Henry David Thoreau’s compositional process. Throughout the drafts, he consistently clarifies awkward syntax, removes excessive emotional rhetoric, strengthens philosophical precision, broadens the universality of his ideas, and emphasizes lived experience over intellectual performance. These revisions support the hypothesis that Thoreau intentionally transformed the passage from a passionate personal critique into a polished philosophical argument about simplicity and moral independence. In the published version of Walden, philosophy becomes more than abstract thought; for Thoreau, true philosophy is a way of living grounded in simplicity, self-reliance, and deliberate action.

AI Use and Citations

We used AI, specifically Chat gpt, to help organize our thoughts and correct grammer throughout this blogpost. It was very helpful when we could not figure out the order to lay out the project. There were also alot of words we had AI define for us simply along with revising run on sentances. We used two websites to help us interpret the text when we were stuck. These two sites gave us alternative views and open the door for new ideas!

LitCharts. (n.d.). Walden: Economy summary & analysis. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/walden/economy/

Walden Woods Project. (n.d.). Philosophy. https://www.walden.org/what-we-do/library/thoreau/philosophy/

By Alexandra Campitiello, Brianna Tooke, Courtney Goodwin, Marlea Petroziello

Anna Enright, Avery Wolfe, Fiona Green

Introduction:

Over the course of Thoreau’s extensive revisions of Walden, there is a chance for readers to analyze Thoreau’s thought process as he develops, rewrites, and significantly alters the text. Throughout the entirety of this year we have examined multiple different instances where Thoreau has made changes, both big and small, to his manuscript. Through our project we have chosen to examine a paragraph within the Chapter “Brute Neighbors”. Paragraph 11 from “Brute Neighbors” transforms over time and eventually becomes a symbolic exploration of Thoreau’s connection with nature. We looked at multiple manuscript pages, specifically from versions A and G, while also making some references to version E. Like the rest of his novel, Thoreau hones in on the smaller more insignificant aspects of nature, and creates metaphorical meaning for each small part that many may take for granted. As we watched and analyzed how this paragraph changes over time we noticed how initially, Thoreau was focused on listing observations; animals live unseen around him. Later he changes this observation into a philosophical argument

Process:

Our group went back and forth multiple times on the focus of our project. When looking at the chapters, we knew we wanted to do “Brute Neighbors” as there’s a lot of content and we knew we could make a claim based on the multiple revisions across the chapter. Our original idea was to look at paragraphs 16 and 17, writing about how revisions Thoreau made to better personify animals. However, we quickly found that the lack of revisions in that paragraph would make the project difficult, as we would have to juxtapose the personifications with another part in the book where he also personifies animals. It wasn’t until the second or third day that we decided to focus on paragraph 11 instead, shifting our analysis to how Thoreau turns his observations into a philosophical argument. This direction felt more cohesive and better suited to the revisions we found in the chapter.

One of the biggest challenges we faced while searching for the manuscript pages was locating the “E” revision of our paragraph. The manuscript search tool didn’t return any results for this version, leading us to assume it didn’t exist. It wasn’t until we spoke with Dr. Schacht in class and he looked through the manuscript that he found the image hidden at the bottom of an unlabeled page in the “E” draft. His methodical approach of looking through the unmarked pages made all the difference in uncovering what we needed. Without his guidance, we might have missed it entirely.

Another difficulty arose during encoding. When working on the “G” revision, we encountered a part where Thoreau added text above the middle of a sentence. While the final version of Walden places the addition after the sentence, we weren’t sure whether to encode it based on the manuscript’s surface structure or to adjust it for readability. After discussing the issue with Dr. Schacht, he clarified that either approach was acceptable. Ultimately, we chose to encode the revision in a way that made the changes clear and understandable, prioritizing logical flow over adherence to the manuscript’s visual layout.

Interpretation/Meaning:

Through working closely with Walden, we have been introduced to his descriptions of animals and observations of nature. However, through focusing on several revisions of paragraph 11 in “Brute Neighbors”, we have been able to see how these are deliberate choices with significant meaning, rather than simple observations. Across versions A, E, G, and the published text of Walden, Thoreau changes these observations into a philosophical argument that the natural world exists independently of humans.

In Version A, Thoreau’s earliest version, he focuses mainly on observing nature and life. He notes that animals live “secret” lives in the woods, that parallels human life. At this stage, his writing reads more as a journal entry rather than anything deep and philosophical. He begins with an observation of a raccoon with no clear indication of a deeper meaning. However, by the time he gets to Version E, he revises this by introducing section 11a. This reframes the passage by opening it with a philosophical lens. He makes the statement that creatures live “wild and free though secret in the woods” which shifts the focus from description to interpretation. This introduces the juxtaposition of freedom and secrecy. While he views creatures as having freedom in nature, much of their lives are “hidden” from human life.

Thoreau strengthens this idea through his diction and imagery. Like when emphasizing the otter’s growth “to four feet long”, but simultaneously acknowledging that it remains unseen. He later revises this idea to make it more clear by adding “perhaps without any human being getting a glimpse of him”. This reinforces the distinction between animals and humans. Specifically how animals and nature do not purely exist for human observation.

By the final published version, Thoreau’s revisions clearly transform the passage into an argument rather than simple observation. Section 11a sets up the reader’s understanding of nature’s autonomy. The expansion of the paragraph, growing into multiple sections, shows how Thoreau’s understanding of the natural world developed over time. Over time, his writing mirrors not what he sees, but what he believes. Through this, he is clearly able to express his belief that nature thrives independently, whether or not humans are there to witness it.

Source- Website

Introduction:

Growing up, I had a great attention span. I would engage in every conversation and pay attention to little details, making sure to point them out whether that was a good idea or not. I was never much of a technology kid growing up, I had a designated time when I could watch TV and I honestly enjoyed it that way. I often found myself constantly outside, playing in the stream in my backyard, picking flowers and overall, appreciating nature as Thoreau did. As I got older, the rules got adjusted to my age. Around 13, I had barely any rules pertaining to technology. I finally got my own phone and could do so much more than just watch TV. Once I got my phone, my attention was instantly drawn to that and only that. Everytime I would be in a conversation, I would find myself checking my phone, even if it was just for the sake of seeing what time it is. Even now, I still catch myself checking my phone everywhere I go. When this blog post was brought to my attention, I forgot about it which shows how terrible my attention span has become.

Everyday distractions:

Technology has consumed the majority of people’s everyday lives. In school, we went from mainly paper assignments to having basically all of our assignments online. I think having to do assignments on my computer and phone is definitely my biggest distraction. If I get bored, there are other apps I can open to “take a brain break” which often turns into me completely forgetting and not wanting to complete an assignment. Lectures went from teachers talking to the class to showing goggle slides that we copy and paste into our notes, office hours went from meeting with a professor in person to scheduling online meetings and some classes even became fully online, making technology the main focal point in our education. Although technology isn’t the only distraction, it’s definitely a main one for me. Friends are also a distraction sometimes. I am someone who can be easily persuaded to hangout with people instead of doing my schoolwork. If one thing is more appealing than the other, I’m taking the opportunity to have fun instead of putting my education first.

Paying attention:

When I started this project, my main goal was to pay attention to the little things that I would usually miss if I was fully captivated by technology. I wanted to pay attention to nature, like how the wind sways the trees and how different animals act everyday, I wanted to focus on my friends and family, understanding their tones and mannerisms, I wanted to pay attention to things I do that I might not realize I do everyday, like bouncing my leg when I’m stressed or the steps I take in order to get ready each day. Although I did pay attention to these things, I noticed a lot more than I usually would. Not that I’m usually self centered, but most of the time I pay a lot more attention to my habits rather than other peoples, which I feel like most individuals can agree with. This assignment helped me open my eyes to the people who surround me everyday. I noticed when each of my suitmates got up and went to bed and how they either shut the door loud or gently. I learned their routines and how I’m often up at the same time as them but just miss them as they walk out the door.

As I looked out the window, I saw squirrels stealing food out of trashcans and how they fought over a piece of a bagel. When looking at the plants and trees, I noticed the pattern at which they swayed, the fresh leaves that have been growing since winter has ended and how green the grass has been getting over the past few weeks. I noticed the rain and how if the wind blows at the perfect angle, it makes a loud whistling noise that causes chaos, blowing things over within my room. These are things that I usually take for granted, but when I was actually paying attention I realized how beautiful these natural things actually are.

Even though I was appreciative of my surroundings, my phone was a constant distraction. I tried my best to stray away from technology, but I still maintained my routine of checking it immediately when I woke up in the morning. I would go back and forth deciding on if I really needed music on my walk to class and ultimately gave in. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to fully pull myself away from technology, but I thought I would do better with holding myself accountable.

Reflection:

I didn’t intend on stepping away from technology for this assignment, but I felt as though it was needed for my wellbeing. I thought being away from technology would be easy but I’m clearly addicted. This assignment opened my eyes to how often I disregard the beauty of nature and everything I experience day to day. I learned that even though putting my phone down or straying my attention away from the TV was hard, I was more energized and responsible overall compared to when I let technology consume me. Although I don’t agree with taking technology completely out of my everyday life, I do think Thoreau was on to something and that we do need to pay attention and appreciate things in the world we usually take for granted.

I want to start this by saying I have never been more aware of my goldfish-level attention span than during the process of collecting data for this assignment. I also learned a lot about where my train of thought goes and why it goes the way it does. I think due to my psychology classes I’ve taken, I should’ve been way more aware of my brain activity in general, but nonetheless I will discuss my findings.

Parallel Distributive Processing

From what I can remember from class, Parallel Distributive Processing is the mental map your memory uses to determine the meaning of different stimuli that your senses are intaking. This means when you see, for example, Snoopy in a Charlie Brown cartoon, your brain is sorting through everything it already knows to figure out what you’re looking at. The ‘parallel’ part means its making these connections all at the same time until it finds what it’s looking for. The train of thought might be dog -> beagle -> cartoon -> peanuts art style -> snoopy. Or, some people might notice that it’s a Peanuts art style first, and then identify Snoopy based on that starting point. Most people make a web of all their prior knowledge thats relevant to the stimuli almost immediately and all at the same time. This makes it very hard to track a single flow of attention, but I have tried my best.

To What Extent Was I Able to Live Comfortably?

My personal approach to collecting data was to set aside the hour of 8pm-9pm everyday for a week to record my attention that way it was more consistent and I wasn’t torturing myself being 100% mindful of distractions all week, although I can say that it did make me crazy even not during that hour of the day because I did end up being CONSTANTLY aware of it. So that was a fail. Honestly it made that hour of the day really unproductive because I kept either stopping what I was doing to record something in my journal or I was following a rabbit hole on purpose because something interesting had caught my attention that I normally wouldn’t have pursued. For example, I spent ~15 minutes googling the effects of plants on productivity because I had noticed I was zoning out a lot looking at the plants around me in Bailey. From my journal:

"zoned out lookign at the fake plants in bailey a lot. why are they even here if theyre fake?? would just get back to work but i might as well look it up. ok looked it up- apparently plants increase workplace productivity by 15%, but thats coming from a website that specializes in designing plants for workspaces soooo reliable prob not but maybe. did not doubl check. went back to my work."

I honestly don’t think distractions like these took away from my autonomy or comfortability at all because if anything I was engaging with my train of thought instead of shutting it down for the sake of mindfullness.

Navigating Digital Enviornments Going Forward

This assignment has made an immediate and lasting impact on how I navigate both real life and digital spaces, as you’ve already read. I walk through life with a much more mindful approach now, I even set a time limit for my social media apps because that kept coming up in my data as a distraction. Specifically, Instagram was mentioned the most times, with Pinterest as a close second, and Tiktok as the third. I am very grateful for this opportunity and this class as a whole.

In present-day society, we have so much accessibility to things that take our attention away from real life. Having access to all of this technology and apps like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc., causes most people to be distracted from their lives and things that really matter. When things get stressful, most people’s first reaction is to distract themselves by using technology and social media. Social media has the power to completely take our minds off of real life, for hours at a time, without us even noticing it. This week, I have paid attention to and tracked what I give my attention to and how often my attention was interrupted, redirected, or captured by other things. I kept track in my journal files each day about what I intentionally chose to focus on and what demanded my attention. This exercise taught me a lot about myself and how much or what things take my attention away. It is easy to assume that distractions come from me being lazy or procrastinating, but it was important to remind myself throughout this process that a lot of the things that take my attention are designed to do just that.

My Attention this Past Week:

One category I made sure to focus on was when I would focus my attention on something intentionally. When I sat down to do schoolwork this past week, I was intentionally putting my attention towards it. I would say doing schoolwork is something I feel forced to attend to, rather than agreeing to attend to, which definitely has an effect on my attention span while doing it. My assignments I have had this week were pretty light, like one-page papers, or filling out graphic organizers. These assignments would typically take me about forty-five minutes if I had full attention consistently throughout doing them. I chose to do these assignments in my living room, while the television was on, my phone was beside me, and my roommates were there. While focusing my attention on my schoolwork, it had gotten drawn away many times to the television and to talking to my friends. An assignment that would usually take me forty-five minutes ended up taking me an hour and a half, just because of these distractions. It makes me curious if I would’ve made my time more useful if I focused only on my schoolwork and got it done quicker and then hung out in the living room after, or if doing my assignment the way I did it made my time more useful because I could hang out with friends and do schoolwork at the same time.

As I mentioned earlier in the introduction, social media is a huge attention grabber in society nowadays. I made sure to track my social media usage throughout this week, and it was definitely an eye-opening experience. I spend multiple hours of my day on social media, averaging about three hours a day, more specifically, on TikTok. TikTok is the main social media app that takes my attention, as it is designed in a way to keep your attention for long periods of time without you realizing it. It gives you exact videos that it knows you’ll enjoy, and shows you these videos one after another at a fast pace, which are qualities that cause me to spend hours at a time on the app. I find that it is much harder to take my attention away from TikTok, than it is from my schoolwork, which I assume is because schoolwork isn’t designed to take your attention, while TikTok is. It is also very clear after observing my social media usage that a lot of my life is being used for watching other people’s lives, instead of experiencing my own. This is something that most people experience at this current time, and it does make me feel uneasy about the direction we are going in as a society. I think a common thought that people have, including myself sometimes, is that we think that we’re still having experiences while watching social media, as there are good qualities like connecting with others, educational content, etc. And although these qualities of social media are good and can be beneficial, it is still very clear that social media, for the most part, takes away from our lives more than it adds to them. After observing my social media usage throughout this week, I will be paying more attention to how often I am using social media as a distraction, and I will be working towards using it a lot less.

What I Learned:

Life really is what we make it, and life consists of what we put our attention towards. The hardest part of redirecting where you put your attention in your everyday life isn’t identifying that there is a problem, but it is actually making changes that stay consistent. I firmly believe that social media is an addiction, and I know that a lot of my attention in my life goes to social media, instead of real-life experiences. This experience has taught me how much I want to make these changes, because I want to experience my life to the fullest. It is easier said than done, but I think society would improve tremendously if everyone made at least some improvements to what they put their attention towards and how we live our lives.

Introduction

I have a terrible attention span. This is a fact, printed in ink on my medical records. I am prone to distraction, and focusing for a prolonged period leaves me fatigued and irritable. My phone is as much my enemy as it is my friend. I use it to read, listen to music, play games and connect with friend globally. And yet it serves as the biggest time sink in my life. Having the world at your fingertips has as many boons as it does consequences. Sometimes I wish I could follow in the footsteps of Thoreau and cast aside my technology, retreating into the woods where digital distraction can not follow. And yet this dream remains unrealistic in a world where everything from my classes to my therapy appointments to my taxes require a wifi connection.

Distractions, agreed and unagreed

Keeping track of my attention has made me understand exactly how reliant I am on my phone. When I woke up in the morning, instead of getting ready and using my time productively I often got distracted checking notifications or taking “just five minutes” to play a game. When spending time with friends or attending events on campus, I found myself scrolling through Pinterest (the one social app I let myself use) or refreshing the same page repeatedly as if something new would turn up. Even walking to class was distraction prone. I would open my phone to put on a radio station and flip between them for a while, unsatisfied with anything on. Still, all of these were objectively “agreed upon” distractions. They were things I (conciously or unconciously) gravitated to, without external influence.

In fact, unagreed distractions were few and far between. I was scarcely subjected to ads while browsing (the exceptions being a scarce few on the radio) and was barely torn away from focus by unimportant notifications. Perhaps one could blame the algorithms, but even in that case much of the time I spent online existed outside of them, playing mobile games or reading webnovels. This I can fully credit to my belief in curating my web experience, and in snuffing out uninvited distractions before they can cost me even more time.

The curated web

A major lesson I had to learn for navigating the digital world as someone with a terrible attention span is the importance of curating my web experience. On both my computer and mobile browsers I employ ad block liberally. I use a proxy service for Instagram that allows me to disable reels and the explore page. I pay for ad free music on Spotify, but also listen to free ad free web radio. Any non essential notifications are either limited or disabled. And most beneficially, I have certain websites or apps blocked, either for part of the day or in general. When I recognize an app or website has become a time sink, I consider how useful it really is to me and often cut it out of my life completely. We can’t fully controll what an algorithm desides to show to us. We can, however, decide that some algorithms are not worth it.

Final reflections

This was a difficult project for me. Focusing on anything is a task. Remembering what I had been focusing on even more so. However, I was able to gain a lot from it. I’ve been able to confirm the effectiveness of the preventetive measures I take for avoiding distractions, as well as recognize the moments throughout the day that I should move more conciously through. Inattention may be a part of my life forever, but I have already and will continue to find ways to minimize the time I lose to it. A metacognitive approach like this is a key first step in recognizing these areas for growth.

My Attention Span

My whole life, I’ve always had a relatively shorter attention span. I’ve had difficulty focusing in school, listening to my friends tell me long stories, and often interjecting my own thoughts at inappropriate times. I’m sure that my attention span has only gotten worse as I’ve become more accustomed to digital spaces. Our mobile phones invade our lives and are some of the biggest distractions from our surroundings. It’s become more and more prevalent as the technology got better, and we can now have miniature laptops in our back pockets at all times. Hence why phones are banned in classrooms in New York State. After paying attention to my attention in a digital enviornment, it’s become pretty evident that my attention span has likely shortened as well since I was a kid.

What I Agreed To Attend To

After years of having certain apps to communicate with others, I’m very accustomed to differentiating notifications from either Snapchat or messages, just by hearing the vibrations. These notifications I usually would let myself be attentive to, especially messages, because in my head, “if someone is reaching me on messages, that must mean it’s urgent since they aren’t texting me on Snapchat.” Other buzzes and bings I can usually ignore. I’ve also noticed that if I am reading an article, or shopping online, it’s like I’ve developed a sort of tunnel vision to instinctually block out obnoxious advertisements. Especially the ones that pop up mid-way through an article, it’s like my fingers know how far to scroll before my brain can even evaluate what the ad is. Similarly, if I’m scrolling through Tik Tok, I automatically scroll past ads for the Tik Tok Shop, and livestreams, especially because they’ve been promoted so much more in the past year or two, compared to four or five years ago, where you would have to really search for livestreams and Tik Tok Shop didn’t exist. It’s almost impressive how much of these distractions our brains can block out with enough practice.

What I Disagreed To Attend To

Unfortunately, as good as I am at ignoring some things, I’m just as bad at letting myself get distracted, or sucked into something on my phone or chromebook. During classes especially, I sometimes really need to fight myself not to play games on my chromebook and to really focus on the professor. I always feel terribly disrespectful when I realize I’m not listening, so I try to be extra attentive afterwards. But to follow that, I spend so much effort in trying to make the professor know that I’m listening to them with manual cues like nodding my head and making eye contact, that I’m not actually hearing what they’re saying. It’s very frustrating. Other distractions that aren’t as time consuming for me are my note taking abilities. I am horrible at taking notes and always have been. I’ve made efforts to improve it like color coding and only writing what is important, but when I try to do that digitally, I sometimes get too sucked into the format of my page or the font size, that I fiddle with that too long and miss what the professor said. It’s also become way to easy for me to completely stop doing homework, and just go on my phone or turn on my TV. Which really slows down the process of getting things done in a timely manner, and only adds to my procrastination.

How I’m Trying To Fight Distractions

I’ve been in an ongoing battle of fighting distractions for a while, and looking for the best tools to battle these distractions and get into a more focused mindset. One thing that helps me get homework done, is either separating myself from my phone, and closing extra tabs on my browser, or turning on the “work” feature on my iPhone. This feature only allows some notifications that may be related to what you’re trying to complete, like emails, or it’ll let through important messages from other people, if they chose to force send it through. Both have helped me focus on completing assignments. I’ve also been working towards lengthening my attention span. Rather than endlessly scrolling on Tik Tok, which is all short form content, I’ve been opting to put on a T.V. show, movie, or a youtube video that’s longer than ten minutes. Sometimes this fails me and I go on my phone, but most often it fails me when I realize I wasn’t listening to the show, and was thinking about something else, and I have to rewind a minute or two. But I have noticed that the frequency I’m distracted has decreased from averaging around 5 distractions/10 minutes to about 2 distractions/10 minutes when I’m watching longer form content. I started marking down in a notebook when I watch longer media on March 31, 2026, so I’ve accumulated almost 3 weels of data to pull from. That itself had become a distraction, but it’s more of an allowed distraction. I’ve also found that using a quiet fidget in some of my classes that don’t appeal to me has kept me focused on the professor, and I only put it down to write down the important notes. So in turn, my notes have also improved slightly.

Did My Distractions Impede On My Life?

Doing this project has made the answer to that question very clear. Yes the distractions impeed on my life. I’ve stopped paying attention to the things around me, like the beautiful sky, or the birds singing on my way to class. It’s hard to enjoy those views when you have music playing in your ears and your nose in a screen. It’s also taken away from my education, which is most important. Even if the class is unappealing to me, I should be able to walk out feeling like I learned at least one thing, and there were days where I would walk out wondering why I even drove to class. It somewhat feels like I’ve lost a Cold War to technology and iPhones. But it is eye-opening and I have strategies to improve myself and my mind. I feel so chained to my phone in so many ways I never fully realized before. People can talk to me at any time, even if I don’t really want to talk to them and my family and friends can track my location whenever. There’s always a pressure to post things on social media as well. It feels like there’s no more secracy to my life, even as someone who is very open-book, there doesn’t seem to be much privacy for people anymore. I do think that changing my distractions will help me negotiate my digital expierience, and that I can have a healthier relationship with these distractions. I’m definately going to keep working towards autonomy over my distractions. If all these other tools fail to help me, I could always live off the grid on a small farm and become Amish.