On Consumption and Creativity
Photo by Fiona Murray on Unsplash
At the beginning of 2020, when the pandemic was just beginning, I found a copy of the Artist’s Way Workbook (by Julia Cameron) in a secondhand store. As a struggling artist myself, I’d always wanted to read the well known source of recommendation such as “morning pages” that had revolutionized and revitalized so many artists from across multiple genres.
Reading the book, doing the recommended activities and committing to morning pages was, indeed, life-changing.
Photo by Dstudio Bcn on Unsplash
For the first time I felt I was able to call myself an artist and embrace my natural gifts without anxiety or confusion.
I published a collection of my poetry, and in doing so removed a major creative block that I had been carrying for seemingly my entire life. Cameron’s recommendations do indeed help struggling artists embrace their inner create power.
Fast forward two years, and I am now a successful indie oracle and tarot card creator. I still do my morning pages every day for the most part, falling out of the habit occasionally for weeks or months at a time. And Cameron's advice echoes in my ears when I feel discouraged or uninspired in my creative work.
One activity Cameron offers is a week without reading. Participants are invited to make this as struct as possible, and though the book was originally published before the advent of the internet and social media, it’s a logical conclusion to draw connections between reading books and newspapers and consuming online content.
The idea behind refraining from any of these activities is the same: limit your consumption in order to clear room for creation.
While I’m not as avid of a reader as I used to be, I am admittedly hooked on social media, specifically Instagram. Spending nearly an hour a day on the app, I know my behavior as an artist and creative is shaped by my the response of my followers, the format of the app, and the demands of the algorithm.
None of this is bad or negative in an of itself. In fact, this kind of creative play with instant feedback can be exciting and inspiring. For me, the process of interacting with the Instagram container has grown stale and even though I find the content of people I follow to be interesting in concept, the format of where the platform is going is not aesthetically or artistically interesting to me at this time.
I think I have a little bit of social media burnout, which has happened to be before. When I left my last job as a social media manager for a marine science center, I quit Facebook as well. I was just done with the whole vibe of the platform. And Instagram is feeling that way for me recently as well. So I decided to sign off for a while.
Like the space left on my home screen from deleting the app, there is room in my consciousness that does not involve checking likes or crafting posts, even for fun or as a creative outlet. As a result, my energy is directed elsewhere, toward my home, my ongoing creative projects, and toward new endeavors like revitalizing my blog.
I can’t say if my departure is permanent because I’ve learned that planning ahead is pretty useless for me personally, especially in my creative life. For now, I’m happy to experiment and play with the energy that is not spent in the metaverse.
