In this post:
Basically a minimal rationale call to action that you should consume less and create more.
The premise for this post falls entirely on the idea that we should try to tip the scale slightly more creative than we currently do.
When I say create, I am essentially talking about art. When I say consume, I am essentially talking about observing the art of others, particularly regarding social media.
While I think that the quantity of time spent scrolling through social media is generally a negative thing, that’s not quite what I’m talking about in this post.
Really, I just think that if you spend 100% of your recreational time – time not spent at work, preparing for work, managing your home or its maintenance, sleeping, etc. – playing video games, watching tv shows, trawling social media, or buying stuff, that you should consider adjusting that percentage down in favor of even 1% of that time being intentionally spent on some creative activity.
I know, it’s relatively easy for me to talk about this as a writer. I play my fair share of video games and I spend some time scrolling social media. I actively want to spend more of that time on writing.
This post is not suggesting you go out on a walk or otherwise just spend time not consuming – it is specifically trying to pressure you to create.
Go draw something that’s on your mind!
Paint, even if you do so poorly – or go to a local painting event for a guided lesson on a specific subject!
Write a poem, a novella, a short story, a diary or journal entry! Write a joke! Write something that will never be intentionally shared with another living soul!
Write a song. Play a song. Sing a new song. Doesn’t matter if it’s acoustic or electronic or just hummed…
Hell, imitate your favorite types of social media creators – produce a parody of something you’ve seen!
It doesn’t even matter if you finish. Start art. Let it linger in an incomplete state, forever full of unrealized potential. Maybe that leaves you uncomfortable – maybe it doesn’t. Maybe that’s a new Thing for you to reflect upon.
Should this unfinished work bother you? Are you content with having begun something you may never have intended to finish? Why?
What you create need not be published, publicized, nor presented.
I encourage you to finish, but more importantly I insist you start.
We all just need to balance our lives a little more intentionally, and this is just one more among the many things that need balancing.
Imagine your app of choice suggests that you spend an average of 20 hours a week scrolling through social media. If you spent 5% less time trawling posts and instead spent that time on some craft, that’d only require a change of behavior of a single hour over an entire week.
That single hour would make a relatively small but genuinely significant difference in your creation/ consumption balance.
I wish I had some scientific content to add here about the benefits of taking the time to create rather than consume – maybe that’d be an edit of this post if I ever decided to make one. I don’t have any such content – this isn’t that kind of post, either.
You might have something in mind that you’ve been wanting to create. Go create it!
Maybe you hadn’t considered that you spend so much time consuming rather than creating. It’s not too late to try and make a change!
No matter how marvelous or mundane, you’ve got something in you waiting to be brought into this world – make it happen!
72 Airman's Writings 