Day 48: Creating vs. Consuming

One thing drives me absolutely crazy: the unimaginably large amount of consumption. I'm not talking about societal consumption as a whole, since everything about that has already been said.

I'm referring to consumption for distraction, which—as is clear today—lurks everywhere. Reaching into our pockets for our phones has become a self-trained automatism. Whenever a situation of waiting arises, the hand, as if guided from outside, moves toward the phone. Hey, I don't even notice it anymore. Today, during a video conference, I caught myself secretly reaching for my phone without the person on the other end of the screen noticing, just to check messages.

There might be a new message somewhere and someone might want something from me.

But not always does someone have something to write, and thus social networks employ a cunning trick: they deliberately withhold messages and dole them out bit by bit whenever you reopen them. Those bastards! Yes, I'm looking at you, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

The Experiment: Replace Consumption with Creation

I've installed one of those app detox apps that lets me lock certain apps with a lock screen. Every time I open LinkedIn, the lock screen asks me if I really want to do this. A brief moment of pause and the question, "Do I really want this?"

Instead, I've resolved that whenever I catch myself opening an app just for consumption, I'll create something instead. For example, I jot down some thoughts when I find myself swiping through YouTube Shorts. Over the course of a week, these thoughts accumulate, and I can then post them on LinkedIn or publish them in this blog.

Where could we be if we spent only half our time on creative activities instead of consumption?