Survivor's Journal: Entry 4
Hey, remember that time where I said I didn't have any trouble taking Navy showers? Uh... let's forget about that. Once I came home from the Philippines, I took a shower. Dear God, hot running water and high water pressure is a blessing. So, yeah. I messed up. But it's whatever.
Based on the "6 Factors That Influence Our Behavior" article, I believe structural motivation is the best way to get individuals to adopt taking Navy showers. People do things that are beneficial to them, as they should. But it leads to selfishness and abuse of resources like water. By shaving 5 minutes off of our showers, we have 5 minutes more to do something. For me, I had 5 minutes more to eat breakfast or I had 5 minutes more to catch the earlier bus. With 5 more minutes, I could prevent things that are detrimental to me, like not eating breakfast or being late to school. Which is good!
As we know, sustainability isn't so popular with customers. People usually do not pay attention to sustainability claims from brands (Arena, 2013). From this article, the best advertising method, I believe, is "Lighten Up". Eco-despair is a phenomenon that's been prevalent when facing problems regarding our earth. People feel as if it's hopeless to do anything in order to keep the planet alive. So, people should try to alleviate that hopelessness, since it may lead people to not do anything about it. By making things fun, by lessening that grim outlook on our environment, people are able to make more sustainable choices in the Volkswagen contest mentioned in the article.
Now that I've been taking Navy showers for 50 days, I plan to keep taking Navy showers or at least shorter showers. This process, the project, was effective in helping me adopt a new environmentally conscious behavior. I feel like assigning this project to anyone can get people to adopt an environmentally conscious behavior. But I felt like this project would have been more successful if people had easier actions they could have done. Maybe it was just me, but I saw a lot of people less successful in doing their own actions or even miserable because of their actions. I dunno, food for thought. This experience has prompted me to learn more about water conservation and crises and what else needs to be done, like how 70% of the globe's available freshwater is used for industrial agriculture and much of that food is used to feed livestock instead of actual food.
Based on the "6 Factors That Influence Our Behavior" article, I believe structural motivation is the best way to get individuals to adopt taking Navy showers. People do things that are beneficial to them, as they should. But it leads to selfishness and abuse of resources like water. By shaving 5 minutes off of our showers, we have 5 minutes more to do something. For me, I had 5 minutes more to eat breakfast or I had 5 minutes more to catch the earlier bus. With 5 more minutes, I could prevent things that are detrimental to me, like not eating breakfast or being late to school. Which is good!
As we know, sustainability isn't so popular with customers. People usually do not pay attention to sustainability claims from brands (Arena, 2013). From this article, the best advertising method, I believe, is "Lighten Up". Eco-despair is a phenomenon that's been prevalent when facing problems regarding our earth. People feel as if it's hopeless to do anything in order to keep the planet alive. So, people should try to alleviate that hopelessness, since it may lead people to not do anything about it. By making things fun, by lessening that grim outlook on our environment, people are able to make more sustainable choices in the Volkswagen contest mentioned in the article.
Now that I've been taking Navy showers for 50 days, I plan to keep taking Navy showers or at least shorter showers. This process, the project, was effective in helping me adopt a new environmentally conscious behavior. I feel like assigning this project to anyone can get people to adopt an environmentally conscious behavior. But I felt like this project would have been more successful if people had easier actions they could have done. Maybe it was just me, but I saw a lot of people less successful in doing their own actions or even miserable because of their actions. I dunno, food for thought. This experience has prompted me to learn more about water conservation and crises and what else needs to be done, like how 70% of the globe's available freshwater is used for industrial agriculture and much of that food is used to feed livestock instead of actual food.
I really enjoyed reading your post, it was interesting to see what stood out to you from the article.
ReplyDeleteIt's also nice how you owned up to getting off track with the project!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! You may have touched on this more in a different blog post but I was curious what methods you would suggest for holding yourself accountable for taking shorter showers. I have a hard time myself taking shorter showers so it would be helpful as a viewer to know the methods you found most effective. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteCheck back to my first blog post! I posted about how since I woke up and took a shower at the same time, I just set an alarm after I woke up to remind myself to turn off the water when I showered.
DeleteAlso, I don't appreciate how you're named after someone who has domestic abuse allegations against them.
I agree with what you wrote about assigning this project to anyone and in doing so people will adopt an environmentally conscious behavior. After reading many of my peer's blog you are one of the first who involved CA content in your post so I applaud you.
ReplyDelete