by Josiah Teng
You’ve probably seen the ubiquitous Disney + ads gleefully informing you of the new, classic, and pseudo-re-imagined (cough The Lion King 2019) movies now available to screen from the comfort of your own bed. As the government continues to roll out new social distancing sanctions in compensation for its shortsightedness, one of my friends remarked how they should just “make Netflix free for everyone. Then people will happily stay at home.”
Streaming services and social media platforms offer unparalleled entertainment value but just how much time do we spend being digitally entertained? The Nielsen ratings (audience measurement system for television programming) found that Netflix users spent 52 billion minutes watching The Office in 2018, a quantity of time translating to a cosmic 98,934 years. But wait, those numbers only describe Netflix subscribers watching one specific show through one specific medium. What about the cumulative time spent watching sports, anime, YouTube, TikTok videos, and Instagram stories? In today’s age, where internet accessible devices are more compact and portable than your average artisanal soap bar, our capacity to consume media entertainment is virtually limitless. Is it any wonder that we find ourselves more withdrawn in this state of digital opulence?
Streaming and browsing are passive undertakings: we sit and effortlessly absorb moving images and static pixels from one screen or more simultaneously (concurrent laptop and smartphone use is a Millennial trademark). We devote hours to consuming content which rapidly diffuses from our ever diminishing attention wick, often leaving us, in perfect ordinance of that particular Einsteinian doctrine, marveling at how we managed to burn so much time doing so little. But isn’t that the epitome of binge watching? We can gorge an entire season’s worth of drama in the span of a few days and return the following night ready for more (Netflix grants you 5 seconds of respite between episodes and a magnanimous 10 before starting a new series). Take a moment to recognize how landmark gaming apps, such as Candy Crush and Angry Birds, engross us with their Sisyphean objectives. We habitually scroll through homogeneous Instagram posts, subconsciously scanning for a break in the monotony. It’s an endless stream of transient images all in queue for an interim under the light of our attention before emptying into that void of banality we call “outdated content” or “old news”. We engage in this process addiction for hours a day because there’s amenity in repetition. We are held captive by our own comfort in the mundane. But there is an alternative.
To create is to engage in the fullest form of expression. It’s when we reach out and intentionally interact with our external world, filling space previously vacant of expression with quintessence drawn from the emotional spectrum of our soul. And it’s what we are inherently designed for. It’s our collective human mandate to do good works; to pursue endeavors teeming with meaning and purpose outside of ourselves. That’s why everyone is capable of creating (contrary to conventional wisdom that limits our expectations of creativity to music or art). When we intentionally start conversations and dialogue to connect with one another, we’re creating. When we write sentences or posts relating our personal piece of the shared human experience, we’re creating. When we run in the park, lift in the gym, or sweat in the yoga studio, we’re collaborating with the environment to discover the beauty and strength of our human body; that’s creating. And yes, to address the virus in the room, the cafes, workplaces, and institutions we typically frequent to create are currently unavailable. But it’s exactly in the failure of societal routine that we are free to pursue ventures deferred. So with renewed intention, hit up a friend who you haven’t had time for before. Journal those long shelved thoughts and illustrate those long gestating designs. Find a topic or subject matter that always held your curiosity and now give it your attention. Share unspoken words and ideas long yearning to be manifested. Reach out to neighbors, the elderly, and even those who are just alone during this time to check in and see how they’re holding up. Because in the end, to create well is to create out of love.
German-Jewish author Berthold Auerbach, in a quote often misattributed to Picasso, wrote that the act of creation washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. If media consumption habits holds us captive by our own comfort in the mundane, we are set free by embracing our discontent with it. Where consuming is passive and derivative by nature, creating is active and inspired. The products of our conversations, personal projects, and physical activities all satisfy long after their initial moment has passed; that’s why they enrich our soul in a way completing season two of YOU in 2 days never can. The current upset of the times reveals the old adage, “you only live once” to be somewhat facetious. The truth is, we live everyday. Every day is a chance to create rather than consume. I guess that’s the opportunity I’m trying to offer: an invitation to go and deplete precious hours doing what brings out our deepest desires rather than what anesthetizes them.