On Consumption v. Creation
I quit Facebook, or technically Facebook quit me. I find irony that logging in from too many countries in too short of a period looks suspicious to Meta, while in reality it was simply the result of living life away from their platforms. Also ironically, their decision to suspend my account came the same week I read Careless People, and it seemed like a fitting conclusion. But Facebook was easy. I don’t really use Facebook except to check on pictures of my dogs when I travel (hence the “suspicious, international logins”). But once Facebook was gone the question became- was I going to actively quit Meta altogether, rather than just passively let Facebook disappear?
I have never been a heavy social media user- I was late to Instagram, and I haven’t posted anything in a year at least. But not using it to share is not the same thing as not using it to consume. In my early days on the platform, Instagram felt like a well curated art gallery- I loved logging on in the mornings and scrolling through images by photographers I love and admire. I told myself it was a daily dose of artistic inspiration. But despite my best intentions, the truth is none of that consumption led to new creation. Looking at what other people posted on Instagram never led to my actually taking more photos.
Awhile back, I wrote a post on boredom and creativity and since then I’ve realized that my problem with Instagram isn’t how much I’m using it, it’s how I’m using it. A few minutes spent scrolling content isn’t the issue. The issue is that those few minutes were filling corners of the day that used to be reserved for the boredom that leads to creativity and creation. When consuming doesn’t lead to more creation, that might be a problem. But what if consumption is leading to less creativity and creation?
I don’t think quitting the scroll magically equals boundless creativity. But I’m hoping removing the ease of filling boredom with consumption leads to more creation and that replacing even a fraction of time spent consuming content online with consuming content offline will lead to more careful, curated consumption. Supposedly we spend an average of 2 seconds looking at a post on social media. 2 seconds isn’t enough time to even engage with an image, let along engage meaningfully. And even if you linger over Instagram posts, everything about the app is designed for the scroll.
The New York Times (online. Yes, I realize the irony but stick with me here) has a new “focus series” where they encourage you to spend 10 minutes with an image. Its incredible. I’ve adopted the practice, trading out the NYTimes suggested image with an image from a favorite photography book because I find staring at an image on paper for 10 minutes easier than on a screen. I heard a photographer say, and I wish I could credit them but I don’t remember who it was, that they leave a photography book (like a book of photography, not a book about photography) open on their desk and every day they turn the page once. They then spend the entire day living with that open image.
There is nothing scientific about this, just observations. But if I can take the minutes in a day I spent on Instagram looking at a single image, if I can replace the dopamine hit of the endless scroll with the slower paced boredom that leads me to pickup a camera and just play, I figure there must be benefit. Even if my images don’t get better, even if I’m not more creative, even if there are no measurable or even observable results, I’m still probably better off. So alas- lets try this Meta-free life experiment. I’ll let you know how it goes.