I'm pretty sure I've already talked about it before on th meis blog, but a topic I constantly think about is this idea of "consumers vs. producers".

I have a hypothesis that humans have two modes of operation: consuming content from our environment and then producing derivations from that content as a way to process and integrate it.

"Production" here is probably not even the best word, as it carries connotations of "producing useful/valuable stuff", but that's not what I mean at all. The idea I want to capture with the word "production" is that it's a process that allows us to work through what we've seen. Stuff comes in (consume) and stuff comes out (produce).

A very common way of "producing" is by making art, but that's by no means the only way. Actually, every mode of expression can be said to be a way of "producing" in this sense. For example, an alternative would be "meditation." I don't know if this happens to you as well, but whenever I sit to meditate I feel that at the beginning my mind is like an onion. Thoughts jump into my mind that have to do with things I've seen throughout the day, and once a given topic is "let go" then another set of thoughts comes up. Each set is like a wave of topically related things. In this way, by peeling the onion, I'm letting my mind munch through what I've seen and heard.

Again, art is truly the epitome of this phenomenon. One could even argue that if, in fact, this idea is true and humans need to go through this "production" mode, then "art" in itself can be said to have evolved to allow such a mode to exist.

"Consume," on the other hand, is a lot fuzzier and could actually be replaced with the word "observe." When we consume we look at the world around or inside us, and all our perceptions become "grist for the mill of production", so to say.

Now, I think that originally there was a balance between how much a single person consumes and how much they produce. But now, in our modern world, that's not necessarily the case.

If you think about it, in our "advanced technological civilization", there are drastically more consumers than producers. Think about Instagram or TikTok or any other garbage farm. One person makes a video of themselves dancing and thousands of people see and comment on it. Even in the "blogosphere", not all readers keep their own blog. That's fine, as long as the consumed content finds expression somewhere else.

We like to think that it doesn't matter what we consume, that we can consume as much as we want and it won't impact us in any negative way. We think we can watch endless hours of brainrot content, or read and reread all the terrible news that has happened throughout the day, and that we'll be okay. But really, that's not the case. If the food we eat is what ends up forming our body, then the content we "consume" is what will end up forming our thoughts.

We also feel like we can consume without a need to produce, which (in my experience) is not how things work1. The act of "producing" will happen whether we want it to or not, but without conscious oversight it might not end up being that positive of an experience. If we don't guide it, if we don't "integrate" what we see, then we might end up developing paranoia or fear or anxiety, anger, or even sadness and helplessness. How could we not?

But we can take a more active role by doing mindful "production": allowing for a space where proper integration of our consumed media can happen in a healthy and constructive way.

Many of us already do this subconsciously. For example, ask any writer or painter why they write or paint, and they'll usually tell you they don't know or something along the lines of "to make sense of the world".

I say "many of us", but actually I think this is an ingrained human behavior. The problem is that now we have ways of "consuming" that are too pleasant, too addictive, and leave very little time in the day for the other facet of "production" to manifest itself. With all this consumption we're taking away time from our minds to do what comes naturally to them.

We're all different, so what I'm saying here might not apply to you. But I know that for me, spending large chunks of my day on social media/news/etc. is a sure way to muddle up my thoughts, and then it takes quite a bit of "empty time" to have my mind naturally put everything in its place once more.

Make art, make space for yourself to grow, don't over-consume.

Thoughts:

  • Today was a weird day. You can probably see from this post that my voice changed to be more forceful than usual. I think maybe I just didn't sleep that well yesterday?
    • Or maybe I'm getting sick. My youngest had a high fever over the past few days.
    • I actually considered not publishing this post because, of all the word-vomits I've done since I started, it's the first one I'm not excited about, which is interesting since this is a topic I've thought about a lot, though maybe not enough to have my ideas straight. This post ended up being a bit convoluted.

Footnotes

  1. Of course, here I am talking from personal experience and I don't really know if others' minds work the same. But for the sake of the argument I'll assume they do. ↩