As my fingers clickety clacked across the keyboard, I felt that familiar vibration on my wrist. I paused my work to look down at the notification on my watch. And for the billionth time today, I picked up my phone to read messages and social media updates.
How many days had I sworn I would only look at my phone for a few minutes in the morning and again at night? How many articles, podcasts and motivational speakers had I listened to, espousing the virtues of reducing the amount of scrolling we are doing? Spend as much time as possible, they advised, unplugged and undistracted from all the devices that buzz, chirp and light up at us 24/7. When you do log on, spend more time creating and less time consuming.
And yet here I was again, reaching for that phone, scrolling for one more little dopamine hit.
Consuming causes us to turn inward, to focus on ourselves. We tune out the world, lose track of time. We look to others to entertain us, to tell us what we think, how we should feel. Rely on others to take action, make their mark on the world while we sit back and watch from behind the safety and anonymity of our tiny little screens.
Consumed.