If I’m to be honest with myself, the last few months have consisted of more consumption than creation.
I tell myself it’s because in order to create, I must consume inspiration that will fill my vessel and pour out of me either onto a canvas or a blank page.
However, a funny thing begins to happen.
I begin consuming and consuming and “forget” to create.
Perhaps because consumption is less vulnerable than creation...
Perhaps because consumption distracts whereas creation highlights…
Perhaps because when I’m consuming the content or words of another, I leave my own world for a minute and get to experience life through someone else’s perspective.
You may notice the slightly dissatisfied tone I’m using while speaking about consumption.
I keep wondering if I look down upon content consumption based on the slew of articles and conversations I’ve overheard about “frying our brains” and “shortening our attention span” and “never looking up at the world because we’re too busy looking down.”
I wonder: would I even be aware of the negative side of content consumption if I had been immune to these comments?
What if they had never penetrated my ego and allowed me to feel as though I’ve been doing life “wrong” because of the way I consume more than I create?
I chose to write about this topic because I am trying to figure out just how I feel about the matter.
If you’ve followed my writing for a while then you know that I write to make sense of my world and the world around me.
As I continue to percolate these thoughts in my mind, I wonder if being a consumer rather than a creator is such a bad thing after all?
The world on the other side of my screen is still a world (even if it is filtered and made-up). After all, a made-up, edited world is still an experience unto it’s own.
However, it’s worth nothing that we consume so much more than what we visually see through a screen.
We consume sound, noise, light, and love…
News, food, music, style, external energy, and beyond.
We are creatures who were quite literally created to consume.
The screens have just made it easier than ever to do so.
We live in a world where consumption is on demand… even without a screen to liaise with.
As I reflect on my hours upon hours of content consumption (both on and off the screen), I realize that I have travelled the world 10x over without physically going far at all.
I realize that my use of content consumption has never really been about escapism.
It’s been about adding ingredients while I marinate.
As I begin to crawl out of my creation hibernation, I’m starting to see the influence of the different places, spaces, and objects I’ve witnessed through my senses over the last few years.
It’s not until the creation is complete that I notice the impression these experiences have made on me.
It’s only then that I realize how present and active my mind has been as I’ve scrolled, searched, and saved.
All of this information has been latent in the back of my mind until another stimulus calls it forward to be witnessed.
It’s remarkable the way the mind registers everything, yet only filters certain information for us to be consciously aware of.
The rest is processed and sorted elsewhere, below our conscious threshold.
When I write, I allow this subconscious part of me to rise to the surface and bubble over… finally meeting a blank page with written words.
As I wrap up my thoughts, I’ll leave you with this:
When you consume something created by someone else and abstain from creating anything yourself, you are not taking more than you are giving.
You are giving your attention.
Consumption is an exchange just as creation is.
The question I ask myself is this: is the value of my attention equal to that which I am consuming?
To me, this is the deciding factor of whether or not content consumption is valuable.
Perhaps… even when we are creating, we are also consuming.
Be it white space on a canvas or time from someone else’s day.
I believe I’ve decided that ultimately, consumption and creation are like an infinity symbol.
No matter how you draw it, the two sides will always fold into one another, creating one, continuous process.
Taking and simultaneously giving.
Each side inextricable from the other.