Minimalism of another kind
In a day and age where we have become aware that we need to correct our need to consume.
Many of us have actively moved away from mindlessly consuming goods. Shifting ourselves towards buying fewer, quality items and working towards a more minimalistic lifestyle. We have acknowledged on some level the wastefulness of physical consuming of goods, and the negative effects on the earth.
However, it has struck me in the last couple years how we seem to have shifted as a society towards a different type of consumerism. Consuming knowledge and content instead of just things.
I am constantly amazed at the amount of people producing content daily – writing meaningful articles, making videos and producing beautifully edited and captioned posts. The amount of time that goes into producing such content is astounding.
However, the more I think about it… what are we actually doing with this content?
How many of us spend hours mindlessly scrolling posts and articles, skimming over them for our own interest and entertainment? Watching TED talks, listening to podcasts and using them to tickle our fancy? They keep us stimulated for a moment until the next thing comes along…
How many of us actually do anything with the information we are consuming? Where is all this hard work and effort going?
It seems to me that we have actually stopped to do anything with and have we just become consumers of another kind… Wasting people’s insights, research and effort to bring us information. Forfeiting the possibility of letting it change the way that we live and think.
Another aspect to consider is what the long term ramifications of this type of consumerism are.
If we are not applying knowledge and using it for growth and forward movement are we not just burning out a generation of content producers? Forcing people to work over time to come up with more interesting, stimulating content for very little personal reward and monetary gain? Depleting human efforts and leaving a generation of social media burnout? Our minds are becoming cluttered with more input, but our lives possibly remaining unchanged.
Perhaps it is time for us to start becoming more intentional with the knowledge and content that we consume… Minimalism of a different kind.
Perhaps we should be reading less, higher quality information that we actually intend on applying in our lives. Slowing down the rate at which we consume information/content and spend more of that time recording, processing, and applying what has impacted us.
I believe that life coaching continues to play an increasingly important role in this process. To create spaces where people can intentionally slow down and think about what they are doing and where they are going. To help people to be intentional in selecting information that want to focus on and to actively incorporate it in their lives. To not just consume, but to grow!
Oh, how we all need this!
All this said while producing another article for others to consume.