About social media
this year, i want to be more intentional about what i'm consuming online. i want to dig into why i'm drawn to certain creators, why i disagree with certain video essay, why i go back to certain videos even though i've rewatched them a million times. why, why, why. the why is the intentionality behind it, to stop being so passive in my consumption.
i've been inspired by this video by anna howard (below) where she explains why she's created a "digital garden" to keep track of the thoughts she has while consuming media and then expanding on them with her own decontextualised thoughts afterwards (i've explained that poorly but watch the video if you're interested).
i feel like when i was younger, i consumed less, but thought about it more. i rewatched star wars until i could recite every line of dialogue. i read jacqueline wilson books until i could write an essay on each theme and how it is connected to her wider work. i used to have comfort shows that i could put on and be completely zoned in, not once glancing away to look at a phone or any other device (and that's another conversation about our declining attention spans). whatever i consumed burrowed its way into my brain, where it still resides to this day.
but now, i feel like i consume so much mindless shit on a daily basis yet never take anything of substance in. i couldn't tell you what i was watching 5 minutes ago, nevermind what i've learnt from these videos i spend entire days doomscrolling through. i have no original thoughts on anything i consume, i just zone out. and then i wonder where time has slipped away to.
i've decided that i'm done with mindless consumption so i've come up with some goals for how i'm going to encourage myself to actively consume:
1) always have a notebook open when i'm watching/reading/consuming something
2) feel free to pause/take breaks to write down my thoughts (eg. "I don't like this character because...", "this song speaks to me because...", "this thing reminded me of this") - this is a real challenge for me because, objectively, i can analyse a piece of work (ex-english lit student here) but when it comes to putting my own opinions/deep thoughts into something...no thoughts, head empty
3) link it to other media - basically turning into my own reference list of thoughts and analyses, like how certain media could be connected even though there are no reasons to actually think that (eg. how the popularity of gravity falls in the early 2010s made way for stranger things to be the huge hit that it was/still is) (this is a thought that has been swirling round my brain for years now. is it true? i'll never know. do i want it to be true? um, YEAH absolutely)
anyway, tl;dr i dont want to be a mindless zombie doomscrolling youtube anymore. i want to actively consume/engage with the media i'm watching/reading and take notes of the thoughts i'm having when consuming it. this post might not make much sense rn, but i hope to look back on it and think "she hit the nail on the head with that one".
Post by Grace-Sugden sur Tumblr.
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