My Summer of Augmented Reality
September 2, 2024
Writer: Nate Downey
Editor: Gretchen Quill
Early this summer, I had the profoundly bizarre experience that was trying on the new Apple VR device the Apple Vision Pro. The Apple Store at the mall in my hometown was offering free demos and my mom had heard good things, so during a trip to the mall, we popped into the store to check it out. Essentially, the device is a bulky sleep mask that lets you hallucinate all of your wildest desires with a (literal) snap of the fingers. Before we began our demo, the store employees gave us the basic spiel, which made it sound like this $4000 device was the next step in human evolution. For 15 minutes, he told us, sitting a mere 80 feet from a Cinnabon, we would witness the future. It would be, according to him, like riding the model T for the first time, or first seeing the flip to color in The Wizard of Oz, or first sending an email. After his almost religious speech came to a close, we finally put on the clunky headset, and the store employee walked my mom and me through some key features of the device. While we entered this strange new world, he watched over us almost like a trip sitter, and we, he believed, were on some very good mushrooms. As a part of the experience, we, among other things, relived memories from our camera roll, sat courtside at an NBA game, and hiked to the peak of Everest.
After the short 15-minute demo was done, we took off our goggles and returned to reality. For what was supposed to be a life-changing experience, I felt strangely… normal. You see, the experience was remarkably similar to how I had been spending the early days of summer vacation: reliving memories on my phone, inhabiting digital worlds in which I did not truly exist, and toggling between apps looking for more joy. The device promised an augmented reality— something to make me feel more alive— what it really provided was more of the same hypnotizing stimulation that our phones provide.
I was immensely disappointed. Who is not constantly searching for a more beautiful or moving reality? As days went on, and my thoughts began to unravel, my disappointment turned into sadness. Had I, at 19, already seen it all? Would I never again feel that stupefying sense of awe you feel as a child? Did the world have any more beautiful surprises in store for me?
These depressive thoughts eventually led to a desperate theory: if the technological future could not impress me, perhaps the past could do the trick. In other words, maybe my phone was the root cause of some of my issues. Using myself as the subject, I wrote down the parameters to an experiment: for 21 days, no Instagram, no Snapchat, no YouTube, no Netflix, no LinkedIn (I was trying to hit 500 connections), and no Reddit (I’m a nerd). In short, I would use my phone as if it were a flip phone. Instead of constantly distracting myself, I would, at all times, carry the unbearable weight of the present moment. As I structured my experiment, I realized that what I was doing was closer to altered reality than any headset could provide. My life was largely digital. During these three weeks, it would not be.
The first day was difficult. I was incredibly bored. I wanted stimulation. I wanted to see what brain dead memes my friends were sending me. I wanted to get an update to Jaylen Brunson’s nagging knee injury. My mind had 1000 thoughts and questions circulating with no outlet. At around 1PM, I decided to go for a walk. It was cool for summer in Charlotte, but still quite sunny. My neighborhood was quite louder than I remembered— I typically listened to podcasts on my noise-canceling headphones while I walked. I walked to my favorite park and did laps around my favorite pond. To give my mind something to focus on, I began doing laps around the large pond in the center of the park. I did lap after lap after lap, searching for something I could not quite articulate.
On lap 12, something interesting started to happen: I began to notice. I noticed the birds by the bench; they were a breed I had never seen before. I noticed the green tint in the water; some dye was still left from St. Patrick’s day. I noticed the couple having a picnic on the hill; they still seemed to be in the honeymoon stage. To me, these things had just appeared. But no, they had been there all along. With these realizations came a warm flood of contentment in my mind. It was nothing short of a magical experience.
The entirety of my summer was not like this. Like anyone, I had good days and bad ones. Still, occasionally I caught these extraordinary glimpses of beauty in everyday life that are only seen by the most perceptive eyes. These experiences were precisely that augmented reality I had been searching for in the Apple Store. I would have never felt this way if I had not given myself the opportunity to slow down and deeply, truly relax.
So, as we return to the overstimulating mayhem that is college, I just ask that you allow yourself the moments to slow down and eat the last summer peach or step on the first fall leaf. I ask that you allow yourself to be aware of the beauty of life. The most profound experiences are often the ones you have to work for, the ones that are small and quiet. If we all have more of those experiences, I have a feeling that we will be happier, healthier people because of it.
