Space-Out Competition – The Weird Side of the Internet

Space-Out Competition – The Weird Side of the Internet – by Liam Sweeny.

I’m a little late to this party; it’s a competition that took place in May. But I have a good excuse here – I was training. What was I training for? How did I train? To answer the first, I was training for the Space-Out competition in Seoul, South Korea. And to answer the second, I did nothing, which was kind of the point.

Four thousand people applied, and one hundred and seventeen were selected to spend 90 minutes on a yoga mat and do absolutely nothing – no activity, no looking at their phones, no talking. Their heart rates were monitored, and the person who had the most stable heart rate at the end won.

See, South Korea is very busy. It’s a high-achievement culture that focuses on success, and along with that, being busy. To the average Korean, doing nothing is going against the natural order. And that’s not just Korea. Beijing, Rotterdam, Taipei, Hong Kong and Tokyo are having their own versions of the Space-Out competition.

In America, could we have this? Would it matter? Would this be any different than having lawn seats at a matinee show at SPAC? I guess we value “space out” time more in our regular lives than other countries, but we still don’t “sit still.” We’re still on our phones every two minutes. Maybe we could use a Space-Out competition. So I propose we do this. Start applying, and we’ll pick as many people as we can pack in Washington Park in Albany.

Washington Park, we’re coming. I guess, I don’t know. If I can get off the couch and find my phone.

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