Creating Over Consuming
created by the Creator to create
Imagine if we spent even a fraction of the time we spend consuming on creating instead.
Seriously.
Recent data tells us the average American spends between 4.5 and 5.5 hours a day on our phones (Gen Z averages over 6). Our eyes see anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day. By the time the average American male reaches the age of 21, he will have invested around 10,000 hours into gaming.
10,000 hours, it is said, is the amount of time it takes to master something. I would argue in this case, we are the ones who are mastered.
I’m not personally on social media any longer, but I help run two accounts. I quickly found lack of a personal social account does not equal less screen time. There’s always scrolling to be had, and between managing two social accounts on facebook and Insta, designing content, consuming content, keeping up with inboxes, perusing music, google searches and curating Pinterest boards (etc, etc, etc), I average close to four hours a day. And a few nights ago, I closed my eyes to fall asleep and experienced Tetris Syndrome.
You likely know what this is….
Remember playing your gameboy for hours back in the day and still seeing Mario run across the back of your eyelids when you were trying to go to sleep? It’s called the Tetris Effect (or Tetris Syndrome). It comes from prolonged stimulation and focus. It’s a sign your brain is still trying to catch up and process intense input.
A few nights ago, the repetitive act of scrolling Pinterest continued when I set down my phone and was trying to sleep. What am I consuming so intensely that my brain is still trying to process long after I think I am finished? What am I wasting four hours a day upon? What could I be creating instead?
Some of my consumption is beneficial, no doubt, but as we march towards a brand new year, I’m under my own examination. I’ve taken the steps to get off socials and have stopped marketing the crap out of myself, but that alone hasn’t loosened the glue of this rectangular device. I am still consuming more than I create.
It is so easy to become gluttonous and broke in this consumerist AI culture. Instead, I long for the opulence of creation. The spiritual richness of stillness amidst chaos. The ease of turning to pen and paper/brush and canvas/fingers on ivory keys instead of thumbs mindlessly scrolling when overwhelmed or bored. The decadence of what is real.
As I wrote the other day, maybe we rarely feel rested and are in a constant state of internal disarray because most of our downtime is spent under the hold of mental stimulation. We sit down on a couch - phone. We go to the bathroom - phone. We watch a movie - phone. We eat - phone. We lay in bed - phone. We wake up first thing in the morning - phone. Before we face our day, we often hear quick bites of thoughts and opinions from hundreds of others. And I have to believe we were not created to bear the weight of thousands of heartbreaking world events and political leanings and strong voices shouting while simultaneously being marketed face cream and fast fashion. It’s all so much.
We constantly consume when we have been created by the Creator TO create. Creating is the act of downloading instead of living in a continual state of uploading what someone else is doing/making/thinking/saying/selling. Creating is essential to our health.
While I’m not a huge “word of the year” person or “set all these ridiculous resolutions” maker, I am a determined human being. And I have unswervingly resolved to create instead of consume, regurgitate or waste in this upcoming year.
I will paint more. I will work on book #2 again. I will compose music. I will continue to journal. I will pull together unique outfits I feel fabulous in. I will play with words and poetry. I will spin awful experiences into rich lessons. I will meet with God in creative, quiet, hidden ways. I will bring joy to the struggling. I will give of myself. I will make everything around me as beautiful as I can.
And while I can accomplish some of this through the social pages I manage, the bulk of it won’t happen under the glow of my devices. It will happen when I tell my phone it is not the master of my precious, fleeting time. It will happen when I allow the Designer of all things shape my life and inspire outflow.
I have to believe we were not created to have a miserable life, but to instead enjoy every second. I have to believe God did not put us on this earth to spend thousands of hours with our noses buried in devices far less dazzling than the miraculous REAL life full of texture and color and scent and taste right before our eyes. I have to believe it brings Him great delight when we create.
**POEM BREAK** (Kinda like a dance break, I guess…)
art wages war against mediocrity and spins mundane moments into things of texture and depth and hue and layer so when i am not creating -too busy- -too distracted- perhaps I have surrendered to monotony's laze so i pick up this pen and choose tender violence again and again
So, my friends, have you been over-consuming too? Are you overstimulated and unrested and overwhelmed? Are you endlessly comparing and easily swayed into worrisome thoughts revolving around politics and world events?
When you were a child you probably held a living, breathing world of imagination inside your head. You were likely quick to draw and color and create. You sang in public. You danced without shame. You met new friends in a heartbeat. You covered your parent’s fridge in colorful creations.
It’s still in there. Such vibrance is still housed in your being and simply requires some dusting off. You were created by the Creator to create, not to over consume.
I see it in you.
So what, now, will you add to this delicious life?