People Watching: The Rise of Media Consumption

Consuming media is one of the greatest hobbies of the people of the modern world. Media consumption, in its most basic sense, refers to the amount of information and entertainment media an individual (or a group) can consume. People devour various types of media; be it books, shows, movies, music or even identifying themselves as part of a social movement online. Discussing a famous show with friends, watching reviews of books, scrolling through reels and staring at youtube videos even while having dinner has become an integral part of life. A simple proportional relation would indicate that if there are so many ideas, prompts, designs and objectives already present in the world, each of them influencing people, then the creation of new ones would be an easy task. However, this has not proven to be true. 

Studies show that creativity is on the decline in the United States. In a 2010 report and 2017 follow-up study, data indicate that “children have become less emotionally expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from a different angle.” Despite the abundance of ideas and stories to connect from, and create something new, the current generation has been failing to reach their creative potential. As much as this is blamed on the current overexposure of media to the younger generation, the hurried nature of everyone's life also contributes a note. The fast pace of this generation's youth is plauged by constant competition, corruption, financial constraints, need for never-ending validation, and social attention, making it tougher for them to fully enjoy the beauty of the world they live in. And without beauty, there is no creativity.

One more effect of these hastened source of entertainment is the oversimplification of complex or thought-provoking media. Description of books are being reduced to simply tropes and genres, truthful representation of certain events are censored to prevent the 'sensitivity' of their viewers, and the depthness (or even the shallowness) of music is not being given the attention it deserves. In general, impactful media are being degraded to their barest bones to accomodate a larger audience, even if it means watering down the impact of the art.

This cycle continues until the pattern of "watch-n-repeat" is not broken. A good start would be the one thing that we're all inherently expert at: observing people. The behavior of watching the daily people bustle around and living their own lives has allowed a lot of people the power to imaginate about how life must be for others. A train's window seat show us the people in awe- or fear- of the train's speed, showing us how the trees move so fast when they're seen from a perspective other than the conventional one. A car's window seat is the first place for a child to grow their reading ability- through the various billboards; as for the developed, it provides endless entertainment for the eyes. A random accident leading to people fighting in the streets, a teen walking towards their home with only exhaustion on their face, a gardener driving around with beautiful flowers to sell, and people going to their offices with their pressed uniforms and hot lunch boxes. Once when one starts noticing such people, they'll also start detecting their behaviors; kids laughing when their school gets over, students returning dejected by their marks, and sleepy faces of the office workers. Observing all these fascinate us seamlessly- making us imagine certain situations for the people we saw that day- why did the man look so happy after the call, so much so that he just gave the autowala an extra Rs 20? Why was the mother not convinced about getting an icecream, even after the countless requests? These may seem as overthinking to some people, but these cloud of thoughts allow us to manufacture stories and create more ideas. If you're someone who's uncomfortable speculating about other people- look into your own book. Make stories out of your life, and characters from your pool of loved ones- and then eventually, you can expect your life to be made out of your stories.

Allow yourself to create more despite the results- do not expect perfection in your first step, or even at your hundredth, only expect change. Whatever you create, be it a story from a song lyrics you just heard, or an artpiece of your favorite character from a novel you read, only seek your own reflection in it, and not the exact replica of the inspiration. What would be the fun of Van Gogh

if he painted like Michelangelo?

Even after all these, if your imagination refuses to be ignited, burn the fuel anyway. Start playing an instrument, even if it sounds horrible under your fingers. Dance unsynchronizingly to music notes, even if your steps don't match to beats. Draw the nature around you, even if the flowers look like stars, and write poetry that even kindergarden students might find stupid. As a consequence, even if you end up with annoyed neighbours or wasted hours, these actions will still empower you to play with them more, to invent, and eventually- to create. As John Keats said:

" A thing of beauty is a joy forever"

It is widely proclaimed that any creation exudes joy, and hence, any creation can provide us the sanction to the grief of the modern, debilitating world. So, whatever you do, just create; for your own and maybe even for others.