Written by Gavin Stevens
It is indisputable that the rise of social media platforms have created an immense amount of “nothing.” Whether it’s gossip over the latest celebrity break up, what your neighbor had for breakfast this morning or harmless cat videos, the internet offers a space for this nothingness to cultivate successfully. Short videos grasp the attention of many, especially as we witness the rise of TikTok, a Chinese social media focused on short video clips.
Seemingly, the rise of this short-lived content has created shorter and shorter attention spans throughout many, especially youth. This is not necessarily a bad trend per se, but an immense amount of valuable and amazing content gets glossed over simply due to its length. YouTube has a lot of really mediocre content, and as a result, spectacular content gets glossed over, hidden under the thick layer of entertainment.
I’d like to introduce you to Kraig Adams. If you are unfamiliar with his content you can thank me later. Particularly, I will be focusing on his silent hiking films. Kraig travels to the world’s most amazing places and allows his viewers to enjoy wherever he goes in the most simplistic and natural sense: only the sounds of his footsteps and of the World around him are included in his videos, and his nack for videography makes for a truly immersive experience.
Kraig began his career on YouTube filming weddings and other educational content on a mirage of camera gear and accessories. Early on, there were videos here and there focused on travel. His first travel video, which only has 9.2k views on YouTube to this day, is very rudimentary. But that’s not where the story ends.
As the years progressed, he began publishing content focused on minimalism. Henry David Thoreau said it best, “Simplify, simplify, simplify!” Kraig’s videos revolved around this mantra. More and more travel videos began to emerge as time continued, my favorite being First Time in Tokyo - Japan Travel Film.
Kraig continued down a similar path of publishing a hodgepodge of videos, all seemingly independent of one another and relatively scatter. One video could be of a wedding, the next focused on minimalism, and the next a travel video. This continued until Adams published his most viral video yet, Hiking 60 Miles on Hornstrandir Iceland. Now, this video has almost 3 million views and nearly 200k likes.
Why did this video blow up out of the many previous travel videos prior? This is a question nearly impossible to answer without watching the video. I encourage everyone interested in the philosophy of Living Now to watch the video. No witty YouTuber intros, no fake YouTube beef. Just the sights and sounds of his time spent in Iceland. These are nothing short of art.
Since this video went viral, Mr. Adams’ focus has shifted. In his Life Update from my Empty Bedroom video, Kraig says, “The Iceland film changed things. I’ve been having so much fun shooting, editing, and uploading hiking films and the people are watching. The demand is there, and it’s really really cool.”
Kraig’s videos are nothing short of inspiring. If you have never spent an extended amount of time outdoors, and are even slightly thinking about doing such, seek no further inspiration then Kraig. Although he travels to many expensive travel destinations, the beauty of nature can be found anywhere in the world.
One of the main missions of Living Now has been inspiring anyone to go out and spend time in nature. Spending time outdoors has immense benefits on both mental and physical health. Outside of that, just seeing the beauties of Earth is unexplainable.
Whether it’s your local park or an exotic location across the globe, everyone could benefit from spending time outside. If you question this sort of outdoor lifestyle, I encourage you to watch Kraig’s travel videos.
In the future, we would love to have Mr. Adams on our new Living Now Podcast. His silent hiking films not only show the raw beauty of traveling but have successfully inspired many to seek adventure.