How to be Happy (Or the Internet is to Brains as Brains are to Mushrooms)

Mycelium Rhizome By Richard Giblett

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a love for whiteboard animation videos (you can see many amazing talks by RSA illustrated here, and my own academic animation here). The other day I was scrolling on my Facebook and saw that Upworthy posted a white-board animation video made by Dr. Amit Sood, a professor of Integrated Medicine. This video is called “A Very Happy Brain” and outlines advice on how to achieve one.  You can watch the short video for yourself before you see how I connect this to my interpersonal media studies, or read my outline below:

Basically this video outlines three traits of the brain (neural predispositions):

1. Your brain feels others pain as its own (the same neurons fire for pain you experience yourself and as pain you experience for others)
2. The imaginary = the real (your brain lights up the same way for imagined situations as it does for experiences in physical reality)
3. Your brain can’t tell physical pain from emotional hurt (the same neurons are activated for both)

Dr. Sood then prescribes two simple practices to cultivate inner contentment:

1. gratitude
2. compassion (giving others positivity is like giving it to yourself)

After watching this video, I started to think about how modern technology, especially the Internet, can enhance our emotional experiences, despite being a disembodied platform. Those of us who feel a lot of fear and self-doubt in physical situations probably carry this over to the internet, feeling paranoid about how an online identity is perceived or self-conscious about an online voice. But I think this goes deeper than just transferring our own feelings onto the internet. 
Anyone who knows me well, knows that in addition to loving whiteboard videos, I am a mycophile. It’s not uncommon for me to read articles about Mushrooms in my free time. As I did this the other day, I stumbled upon a piece called “Livin’ In a Mycelial World” by Claire Evans, that compared mycelium networks of mushrooms to the networked neurons in the brain, and to the basic structure of the internet. Okay, I could talk about this phenomenon forever, but I’ll get to the point of my realization: the internet is like a universal brain, housing the collective consciousness of humanity.

"Farmers of Fungi" by Dustin Eirdosh: A Mycelium Network 

"Nueral Connections and the Mind" by Jon Leiff, MD 

"A visualization of the network structure of the internet 

by Hal Burch and Bill Cheswick, courtesy of Lumeta Corporation" 

featured in Claire Evan's Artice.

In light of Dr. Sood’s video, this means that the Internet is a platform for experiencing collective pain. This counters cynical thoughts that I have had before that the internet desensitizes us to injustices or that it doesn’t increase our empathy. According to recent neurological studies,  It doesn’t matter if the pain witnessed on the internet isn’t physical, or if  the pain isn’t ours, or even if the pain didn’t “really happen”. Our individual brains perceive it all the same. The age old proverb of “treat others the way you wanted to be treated” has never been more real in my mind.

 Image Source: Karen "Mushrooms" Moreau

If pain is easily shared through the Internet, this also means that the internet is a platform for us to practice and enhance gratitude and compassion, to make it a “a happier” place as Dr. Sood would say. The key is being mindful about what we add to the mix, because what share, others’ brains will feel. I am inspired after making these connections to make my statuses and posts on the internet reflect gratitude. I am inspired to reach out more to my friends on Social Media to spread positivity. We have an incredible tool at our fingertips, and sharing our ups and downs with our online communities is a way to practice compassion, empathy, gratitude and meaningful connection. The creative possibilities for reaching out are endless.

What Do a Coffee Shop, River Spot, and Tumblr Have in Common?

In his book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg brings up the idea of third spaces as social places for casual interaction. He calls the home the "first space" and work (or school in my case) the "second space," leaving "third spaces" as sites for broader community interaction. Common examples include bars, parks, or cafes. In my Interpersonal Media Class, we came up with some characteristics for third spaces: 

• You can easily come and go in them.
• There are "regulars" that frequent the space often and integrate newcomers. 
• Users could describe it as a home away from home. 
• There is an emphasis on conversation in the space with a playful mood. 
• People congregate from different walks of life.  

"Feelings Not Held Are Swallowed Instead" By Delilah Jones on Flickr

After discussing third spaces in class, I started to wonder about if we go there to engage with community, or to escape our other realities. Do people head to the bar to feel a part of meaningful social interaction, or is the point to forget stress at work and issues at home? And what about Facebook, videogames, and other websites--are physical and virtual third places interchangeable?

In order to grapple with these questions, I want to take a look at three places I consider to be third spaces for me, two physical and one virtual.

1. The first third space I hold close to my heart is a coffee house in my hometown Felton, California, The White Raven.  It is an adorable, small space nestled along Hwy 9, surrounded by mountains of redwood trees. Inside there is local art, jewelry, and other cool merchandise being sold. There are scattered metaphysical and poetry books, delicious drinks and pastries, and an eclectic ebb and flow of locals. People of a wide range of ages and backgrounds come and go throughout the day. And there are a lot of regulars I almost always see coming in at the same time for their coffee. It is cozy and welcoming. People go there to chat. I often meet friends there to catch up while sipping on the best chai. Sometimes I'll go by myself to read or write, as do many others who can be seen on laptops, buried in books, or scrawling in journals . . . but I often find myself chatting with familiar faces, even if that wasn't my intention for going (and it seems that's the case for most people). There is a definite sense of community, where bonding occurs between friends and bridging can be stimulated between these groups because of the intimate shared space.

"Counter Space" from the White Raven Website

2. A slightly different type of third place in my hometown is what is referred to as The Garden of Eden, an area of the San Lorenzo Valley River in Henry Cowell State Park that seasonally becomes one of the top hangout spots in the summertime. People trek through the redwoods, along a railroad track, and down a steep trail to this sunny haven (See this video for a sort of virtual tour). People come and go throughout the day, and there are individuals and groups that frequent the spot practically everyday (I have gone through periods of this during my summer vacations). "The Garden" is a free space for relaxing, which often includes casual drinking and smoking, sun tanning, and swimming in the river. People go there just to hang out, chat, have fun, and relax. You can find kids, young adults, and older folks at The Garden, as well as people from other areas (often San Jose) visiting, which increases ethnic diversity. This influx of tourists and non-locals has created some divide at The Garden though, with parking being harder to find, litter increasing, and a slight harsh to the homey vibes The Garden is loved for. This space is one for friends to bond, but there is room for social capital to be built between friend groups and newcomers, as long as the shared practices and expectations are made clear adopted to respect the space.

Rock Stacks at The Garden, photo by me 

3. When transitioning to trying to consider a virtual third space for myself, the one place that comes to mind as a possibility is Tumblr.

• People come and go throughout the day and night. 
• There are people I will almost always see coming up on my dashboard, who post regularly and reach out to other users in an almost mentoring manner.  
• The network I am a part of is welcoming, inclusive, and sensitive to the member's needs and concerns. For example, the language used is mindful not being offensive, and intense posts often carry trigger warnings. 
• People go there to chat, share information and inspiration, and express themselves creatively in a welcoming space. 
• All genders, races, and sexualities are embraced and encouraged to be expressive. 

I turn to tumblr to procrastinate, often by just scrolling through my dashboard looking at cool pictures and reading articles and personal stories people post. I often post stuff myself, mostly photos but also some writing. Tumblr has the feature of "reblogging" where you can re-post content that others created or reblogged to your own page. Although this process, and Tumblr in general, can be a detached medium, void of community interaction, I often use it to build my social capital. I am friends with a few people I know IRL, but I love Tumblr as a sort of third space because of the bridging that happens-- I converse with people I've never met, solely based on our shared interests. I get so much inspiration and motivation from these people (as I mentioned in my last post about embracing electronic escapism through the internet). I even had a pen pal for some time that I had met through Tumblr!

Screen shot of a portion of my Tumblr posts & reblogs

Sure, I can't swim on tumblr. I can't drink virtual chai. I can't get a hug from my online friends. I often go to third spaces for embodied interaction with tangible objects and scenery to consume.
Online, physically I might be in a "first" or "second" or even "third" place, making Tumblr and other internet sites a sort of fourth dimension. Wow, that's trippy.

Overall, comparing my embodied third spaces with the potential third space of Tumblr, I come back to my question of escapism vs. engagement. Online sites can be used as third spaces if one intentionally seeks out networks that are inclusive, diverse, and community oriented. However they can also just be used to escape into an individualized internet surfing session. I think this can be true for embodied third spaces too, though. I could go to the coffee shop and ignore everyone-- headphones in, eyes lowered. I could go to the Garden of Eden and hide behind a rock to enjoy the river in solitude. There is nothing wrong with taking time for the self, but I think that is a different use of an environment all together. 

~* What third spaces do you inhabit, IRL and on the internet? 

Do you find yourself frequenting these spaces often? Why? *~ 

>>> comment below <<<