Consuming vs. Creating

What percentage of the time are you consuming vs creating?

When I talk about consuming, a few things come to mind:

  • Watching a video or tiktok
  • Reading the news or the latest slop gossip article
  • Listening to music
  • Scrolling on a site with infinite scroll where there is no possibility of ever reaching the bottom

In recent days, I’ve been spending a lot of time observing my own habits and the habits of others. In my self, I’ve seen an uptick in the amount of time that I spend consuming content. I’ve noticed that if I have any downtime I tend to either open Twitch or Youtube and go down the rabbit hole of endlessly viewing someone else’s creations.

In others, I’ve started to notice just how much time people spend in front of a screen. I’ll probably write another musing on this but it seems as though everyone is averse to even the though of becoming bored or having a moment of boredom. While I’m unsure what people are spending their time on in front of those screens, I’m certain a large majority of that time is spent consuming.

One of those such consumption sessions has lead me to a video on this very subject. Which in turn got me musing. Why do I consume so much? What is stopping me from creating something?

I’ve had the want to create things. I just have never had the right thing that I’ve thought was good enough for the world.

And that’s where I think my problem lies. I’ve always wanted whatever I present to anyone to be PERFECT, to be EXACTLY how I envisioned it looking. But that is just an unrealistic standard that there is no possible way of achieving. So I’ve made the unconscious decision over my 31 years of existence to just stop trying to create anything.

Which leads me to here and now.

I created this blog as a way to force myself to be imperfect. I created this blog as a way to make myself create something. I intend on using this space as a platform for anything and everything that interests me.

I urge you to do the same. Be creative. Be imperfect. Be honest. Be genuine. And do all that while creating something. Put yourself out there. Write that forum post, leave that comment, upload that picture. Engage with life in a way that’s not from behind a screen.

Written on May 31, 2025.