Put the Phone Down. You Might Have an Original Thought.

Angie Wally

4 hours ago

3 min read

When I was in college, I stopped writing for a while. I have always been someone who sees writing as a form of escapism. It was the one time I could escape from all the noise out there and create something that made me happy. Even keeping a diary felt like a breath of fresh air, away from social media.

But the less I wrote, the more time I spent on social media, and the more miserable I became. I was consuming an endless amount of media and other people’s content without even having the time to process what I was taking in.

We live in a world where overconsumption is almost inevitable. Our current technology has made everything accessible, and we barely need to make an effort to find what we’re looking for. Whenever I scroll too much on TikTok, I feel emptier and less ambitious.

Right now, we’re consuming more than our bodies and minds can take. We’re consuming too much media and too much harmful propaganda, leaving us unable to focus on ourselves or the actual good we can do for our societies.

I believe our phones are stealing from us the opportunity to express ourselves. We’re dedicating so much time to our phones and social media that we aren’t leaving enough time to express and understand ourselves.

When we were kids, we had this constant need to create something. Whether it was drawing, writing or picking up a camera, we were always keen to express ourselves. Somehow, we replaced those needs with the cheap dopamine of social media.

I think we’re losing parts of who we are through overconsumption. We’re constantly seeing how everyone else is living their lives, what they’re eating, what they’re wearing and what they’re consuming. It’s stripping us of our essence.

I believe one of the keys to contentment is creating more. Expressing what we feel inside. If you read a book, watch a film or follow the news, write down what you think about it. Write your opinions and how it made you feel. This can help you understand more about yourself and the way you view the world.

Whatever you consume, create something from it to understand it more deeply. If we’re constantly consuming media without any way to properly process it, we risk erasing our own personalities.

Creating something of our own can also be a way of finding the art we’re looking for. It can provide us with answers, because the answers will never be entirely contained within the media we consume. Sometimes, they will be found in the things we create.

And the beauty of creating your own art or content is that you can do it for yourself, without an audience. You can express yourself in the way you want and, in doing so, attract the people who feel seen by you. Creating can almost be therapeutic, as you confront all those inner feelings and turn them into something tangible. It can also become a way of documenting those feelings so that you can understand them better.

The more you consume, the more you may harbour negative emotions without any way of dealing with them properly. It can fuel your anxiety, leaving you searching for even more things to consume as a form of distraction. You keep looking for distractions while neglecting that same need you had as a child to express yourself.

Overconsumption can rob us of our true potential. It’s a trap that keeps us within our limits and makes us feel less powerful. The endless cycle of doomscrolling can stop you from focusing on your ambitions and passions. When you’re creating something new every day, you feel more empowered. More free.

I feel much happier when I’m creating than when I’m consuming. I’m less anxious when I’m writing or journalling about how my week went. I’m happier when I write a poem to express how I feel or a story with an ending that mirrors something inside me. I feel more at ease when I stop scrolling on TikTok and pick up a pen to write down what I’m feeling instead. It’s in those moments, when I’m working on my own projects, that I truly feel satisfied and closer to who I am.

The goal should be to create something you’re proud of, something that brings you happiness. It shouldn’t be for views or algorithms. It should be something that brings you peace and reassures you of your dreams. It should be something that feeds your creative cravings.