Pitch Black

So after a random heads and tail flipper on random.org, it became clear of what it was going to be, I was going to be blind for an hour. At first I didn’t want that, but I didn’t want to become deaf neither, I couldn’t stand the thought of losing one of these senses, but the heads and tail help me with that.  

Pitch black it became, it was different, more tuned with my other senses. It was like my hearing got better, I felt more in contact with my body, thereby more aware with my other senses. But I struggled the first few minutes, because couldn’t find my headphones. When even going to the living room was hard, watching tv was a struggle and I will not even tell what happed in the kitchen.  After all that, I got used to it, It wasn’t that confusing any more. A good thing was that I had Siri with me, we became really good friends, she’s so funny, but still difficult to use when being blind.

An hour was gone, and what an experience it was. I learned well from being blind, its difficult living without some senses, respect to all people who does that. 

Being Blind

This afternoon, as requested, I put on a blindfold and tried navigating around the house whilst completely blinded. Luckily, my step-dad had already made coffee and offered to pour me a cup, so I didn't need to risk scalding my hands by pouring hot coffee on them. After getting a cup and undoubtedly spilling half of it on my way to my room as I fought my way up the stairs like a caffeine drunkard, I decided to read a book to experience what it was like for blind people to read. 

Although I didn't catch a whole lot of what was going on in the book, it was still interesting nonetheless. I realized, though, that that perhaps wasn’t the most efficient way to experience the sensory change that comes with blindness, but it did give me a good idea of some of the limitations that the lack of a visual input brings. Instead, I opened up one of the windows in my room, felt the breeze hitting me in the face, and I put on some music - although that in itself was pretty difficult as well. The lack of vision made me focus more on the music and thus enjoy it all the more, which was a fascinating experience. In that way, I suppose that each one of our senses brings with it a certain type of “pollution”, in the sense that the lack of, in this instance, visual distractions makes all other senses that much keener, I especially experienced an increase in my auditory awareness.

Therefore, I would say it was an interesting experience. The strongest contrast to me, however, lied in the limitations on what I was able to do. The shift in the importance of sense I described earlier wasn’t very significant to me, sadly, which I tried to change by forcing it, through additional auditory input, i.e. music, which did bring some change with it. However, I have no doubt that, were I to leave the blindfold on for a longer period of time, this enhancement of the other senses would become much more prominent. 

Blind for an hour

The experience of not being able to use the sense of sight for an hour has made me realize and understand the difficulties of being blind..
One thing I noticed when I didn’t have the sense of sight, was that I automatically used the other senses a lot more.
For instance, I used my sense of hearing a lot more than I normally do and therefore I became conscious of the many unnoticed sounds there were in my room. When my eyes were open, I thought that my room was quiet, but when I closed them for some time, I heard things that I wasn’t aware of before.

But it was not only my sense of hearing that I began to use more, it was also my sense of touch. If I was looking for something then I had to feel my way, which was quite frustrating, because I can normally just look around and find it instantly. The lacking sense of sight also became a problem when I went from one room to another, because then I had to feel my way again and always make sure that I would not go straight into something and bang my head. Therefore, I also had to concentrate all the time to memorize how the different pieces of furniture were placed around me.
After I was blind for an hour, I definitely got more respect for blind people and a greater understanding of how it is to be blind.


(I have no idea why my text is white..)

Blind for an hour

I decided to be blind for an hour, and it was a different experience. At first, I felt helpless because it was very difficult to walk and I was afraid of bumping into something. I walked slowly and I felt with my hands if I was bumping into something. Sometimes my arms were tired, so I stopped feeling with my hands and just walked. Suddenly I bumped into the wall. That hurt.

     I really felt helpless because I always needed help; I needed help to take a glass of milk, to find my pencil and many other things.

     After half an hour, I started getting used to be blind. I used my sense of hearing to go from place to place, but it was, however, still difficult. Everything was still dark, but my sense of hearing became better because I could here noises which I have never heard before. I could hear the clock ticking which I have never noticed.

     All in all it was boring to be blindfolded because I couldn’t watch TV, play on my computer, do homework or anything else, and I actually didn’t know how to spend the time.

     But this experience made me think of people, who are always blind. They can’t watch TV, play videogames and many other things. I feel sorry for them and I have decided to help a blind next time I meet one.

The spoken words, which are communicated to me, I cannot hear. I am constantly trying to read lips, but it is difficult. I try to pay attention to their facial expressions and their body language, but I still cannot understand the message they are trying to send to me. Not being able to hear is like participating in a guessing contest.

This is how I could imagine deafness being like, but at the same time, it is a guess…

I tried to fill my ears with toilet paper, but unfortunately, I was still able to hear noises, therefore the experiment was not performed successfully. However, I could imagine that the lack of ability to hear, would have caused me trouble when communicating with others.

Overall, I think that being deaf differs from being able to hear to a high degree. I have not experienced what life as a deaf person is like, but I do think by performing the experiment correctly, I would have experienced some of the complications that occur, when you do not have the ability to hear, for example communication problems. Furthermore I think I would have experienced my other senses being heighten. 

If I had to choose between losing my sight or my hearing, I would choose to lose my hearing. However, in this task, I chose to close my eyes for some time. I chose to be blind, because I thought that would be the biggest change. It wasn’t for a whole hour, but long enough to feel just how much I had to rely on my other senses for help. The first thing I did was to walk around in my house. By walking around, I mean walking with at least one hand touching the wall, so I had a small idea of where I was. I wasn’t comfortable with not being able to see at all, because I constantly kept waiting for the moment where I would smash my toes into a piece of furniture. That “fear” gave me the idea that I would crawl around on the floor. I know it might sound weird, but at least there would be a very little chance of me hurting my toes. However, while feeling uncomfortable with this “being blind” task, I noticed that my hearing had been improved. I’ve heard somewhere that this actually is the case for people who have lost one of their senses. It is a great advantage for a blind person walking in the streets to be able to hear the traffic better, when he or she can’t see it. People who have lost their sight will often find other ways to navigate around, but I still feel sorry for them. How horrible would it be not being able to see a beautiful sunrise, the look, or the smile on someone else’s face? 

Being blind

Being blind

So being blind for and hour, or maybe a little bit less, is not easy, and now after this experience I really feel sorry for the people who are blind.
I actually went through a lot of trouble just trying to become blind, and I ended up taping cotton on my eyes, which actually wasn't that good of an idea, because the cotton got stuck in my eyelashes every time I blinked. But when I finally got the cotton to sit so it didn’t irritated me, I had to find the way from the desk to my bed. First of all I must have looked like a complete idiot walking around with my arms stretched so I wouldn’t bump into anything. Besides looking like one I also felt like one because I wasn’t exactly looking like a supermodel with all that cotton on my eyes. However when I finally got to my bed, I had to call my mom so she could turn on my computer, I tried several times until I gave up trying to key the password. But anyway she turned it on so I could listen to an audio book. It was actually kind of nice, not getting distracted by my phone or computer I just sat there and listened. My mom had to help me with a lot of things like getting something to eat or just  finding my phone and telling me what time it was. I really noticed how I couldn’t do anything whit out help, it was a very weird feeling, having to rely on another person.