On Passive Consumption
Passive consumption is among the few things that leave us hollowed out after we engage with it. The worst form of it is the short form videos format. The Pattern is straight forward: We need meaning and purpose in life while our brain needs stimulus for it to move towards it. The meaning and purpose in life is not like a hanging fruit that we pluck and that is it. We need to experiment things, think over things, get bored and also pay attention to our lives.
Passive consumption snatches this opportunity from us to pay attention to our lives, to get bored or to experiment things. Resultantly, we have no defined single or a couple of directions to be concerned with. Because we have no clear purpose in life, we find no barrier to put in front of the urges to do other things aka distraction (checking your phone, posting on social media, scrolling enlessly etc). We cannot use our brain to fight our brain (and its need for stimulus). Thus we fill our time with meaningless consumption under the facade of atleast doing something - pursuing my pleasure and seeking my happiness as a sort of purpose of life.
If hedonism is our purpose then loneliness is one of our worst enemies. Passive consumption allow us to run away from the loneliness that we all so fear. It provide us with the much needed distraction to avoid being with ourselves. The noise of silence is just unbearable. Humans have worked over the centuries to eventually get to the point where they can successfully dampen the noise of stillness and keep themselves amused non-stop.
I believe it is also the result of ours conditioning from the childhood. Since the spread of Television, children have been raised in an environment of constant fun and entertainment. We did not learn to be still or be-just-there on the couch looking at the wall or the ceiling or the carpet or the plant. We have been conditioned by the television that whenever possible, we should consume constantly without any purpose and effort for a prolonged period of time.
In the past, all the forms and sources of consumptions used to be far and separated from us. In most cases, one needed to go to a certain place to consume, such as an open air theatre, or a cinema . Also, they had one more important quality, they had an end. Eventually, one had to return back to reality, to stillness, to one's thoughts and to the loneliness.
The curse of our time is that we have these sources so close, so connected to us and the dilemma is that they have no end. We could completely waste ourselves off by constantly consuming the content but it won't end. Sadly, the production and consumption of this endless stream of disconnected, meaningless brain rot as been so cleverly connected with our wants and our needs that in most cases trying to disassociate with them seems like separating onion from its peels.
Recently, I asked one of my juniors for why they use Snapchat. She said (verbatim): Because it allows me to peep into people's lives. I get to know what they are doing. The best thing about it is that I don't have to risk my reputation in any way, like in the past, by climbing a window or eaves drop into neighbours' home to get some leads into their lives. Now people post to show their lives to me by themselves.
The human desire to peep into people's lives has been given such an appearance that it seems necessary for us to share not only our lives but to be interested in others lives as well without any shame, purpose and limit.
The final cost of all this consumption is that it turns us from creators to mere spectators. We contain the DIVINE breath, and thus, have the innnate energy to create. We wither away if we do not create. We rot and disintegarte slowly with an unease all the time though unnoticed or rather dampened by the passive consumption.
It is easier said then done, I suppose. Because we are deluded with content, we also have dozens of different creative paths in front of us. Within those paths, we have multitudes of high quality artifacts and contents that just become a source of discouragment as we try to attempt to create something on our own and compare our first attempt with those high standards.
Important things to keep in mind here is that we first need to take a break from constant passive consumption. To provide moments of boredom and stillness for our mind to allow ideas to flow. Then to create whatever we feel inclined towards and consider important: writing, drawing, preaching, technical modelling etc without any standard in mind but creating for the sake of creation. To warm up our creative muscles and to provide a fresh identity for our mind to accept that we are creator as well and not just some passive consumers. As we probably move ahead, we shall create our own standards and purpose for the work that we are doing.