Consumption Versus Creation
Top of the Morning
The amount of digital content you consume each day is quietly poisoning your ability to live fully. The moment that you wake up each day, you instantly plug in to the digital world by reaching for your phone. You haven’t formed the first thought for the day, had a freshly brewed cup of coffee, or simply gotten out of bed for that matter. Instead, you’ve plugged into this invisible world where you are instantly pulled into all of the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the first topic that comes across your screen. No platform is exempt here. Whether it is the opening of your email, Instagram, TikTok, X(Twitter), Facebook, whatever. Your first move should be to gather yourself. How are you feeling today? What’s new with you?
I understand, you want to see what’s going on, find out what’s new, and what you’d missed overnight. I’ll give you the answer to what you’d missed for tomorrow morning and every morning for the rest of your life. You missed nothing. It’s hard to pull away from, I get it. I’m still working on this myself. It’s just a habit that you’ve formed but you have to understand that it is slowly poisoning you because you’re not in full control of it. It’s okay to be informed about the goings on, but it’s not okay to be manipulated by what’s going on. How balanced can an algorithmic news feed truly be? What happens over time? Your thoughts can easily become shaped and guided to believe and accept whatever is fed to you. This is especially true if you are not making a conscious effort to fact check and challenge the content that you receive across timelines. It’s just easier for you to accept it and scroll to the next post that will now-due to the algorithm-echo the same sentiment because of the amount of time you’d given the previous post.
Emotional Chaos
Another devastating effect is the swift change in your mood that over-consumption can create. Let’s say you come across a post that is hilarious, you burst out laughing. Then, there’s another post that makes you chuckle. You then scroll up to a post about the news on a war with disturbing images. The next post might then be someone showing off a new recipe that they’ve created. This all happens in a matter of 5 minutes. Reflect for a second on how you think you might feel after this brief amount of time. The biggest issue is that you were powerless in controlling how to feel. Your feelings were in the hands of whatever the next post would be. It was a simple roll of the dice. Your mood shifts with each swipe up. Now consider this when you're on your phone for 30 minutes or maybe an hour. That has to be an emotional roller coaster. May the algorithm play into your favor.
Effects on the Mind
The biggest drawback is what it does to basic human abilities such as listening and creating a space for stillness. You should be able to hold a conversation without reaching for your phone. Our attention span has and continues to diminish over time. A 2015 Microsoft study showed that attention spans in adulthood have decreased from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. A 2025 study by Magnet ABA Therapy showed that the global average for screen time is 6 hours and 40 minutes each day. Demographically, Gen Z spends about 9 hours per day on their screens. For some, it has become a challenge to do simple things that should be enjoyable such as watching a film without opening the phone.
Creation Over Consumption
The solution to this will require a period of intentional reconditioning.
Filter the type of content that you consume. You can’t be at the mercy of whatever is inside of the algorithmic bag for the day. Be aware, but don’t become consumed by what you consume. Take control.
Limit the amount of information that you consume. Try keeping nonsense or things that negatively affect your mood and spirit to a minimum. Better yet, eliminate it if you can.
Set aside specific times for digital media: social media, news sites, blogs, etc. You don’t have to do a hard stop, but you do have to control your intake.
The goal is to take control of your digital intake because it is seriously affecting your daily life and you may not realize it. My recommendation is to create. More creation, less consumption. Creation, for me, can be a form of building and bettering yourself. Creation can be about exploring new interests, refining yourself, or developing new skills. Establish more activity on your end and become more consumed with what you create versus what is going on from the outside. You have the final say on what you think, how you feel, and how you live. Take back your authority.
