Word of the Day: Consumption

AAAAHHHH INTERNET NEVER LET ME LEAVE YOU AGAIN.

Just kidding. It wasn’t that bad. 

If you read my last post, Creativity and Consumption, all the way through, you know I spent yesterday in a relatively media-less environment in an attempt to bolster my creativity.

It went well, and it sort of worked? I didn’t add to the novel, but I did tackle some projects that I’ve been meaning to do, like finishing up transcribing my journal. So that was good. 

Plus, when I woke up this morning, my whole brain was like INTERNET INTERNET INTERNET INTERNET and I was like YES YES YES YES YES and then I spent six hours on Tumblr and Vlogbrothers and Facebook and YEA VERILY IT WAS A HIGHLY ENJOYABLE EXPERIENCE. 

It was much like the time that I spent five days eating only vegetables and lean meat and then on day six I had a cinnamon roll and that cinnamon roll was, without question, the most delicious thing I’ve eaten in my life. That’s how the Internet tasted this morning. (Not literally, Bridey, no, stop that. You can’t lick the Internet.)

This experience made me consider the word consumption itself. “Consumption” used to be the term for tuberculosis,* which seems oddly unrelated to the way I’ve been thinking about consumption as “taking in and using lots of stuff.” But it makes more sense when considered alongside the first definition of “consume” as found in Merriam-Webster:

                To do away with completely: Destroy.

And it gets worse:

                To spend wastefully: Squander.

Use up.

Devour. 

It makes sense. When you consume food, it’s gone. I guess I was just thinking about “consumption” in the context of media, and in that sense, no, when I watch YouTube videos they don’t disappear. I’m not destroying anything when I consume YouTube videos. 

Or am I? Sure, the contents of the Tumblr I’m reading aren’t gone after I consume them—but my time is. My passion and motivation might be, too. 

Basically, the way my brain cries out for MOAR INTERNET NOW PLZ is about as healthy to indulge as the way my brain cries out for more cinnamon rolls. Both are most satisfying and healthiest in moderation. 

Yesterday's experience helped me see that I need to produce more, to spend more time actively creating and less time passively consuming. Maybe if I did so, I would feel less compelled to end this post with "Hank, I'll see you on Friday."

*According to the OED, “consumption” as a disease was first used in 1398 I love the OED and it referred generally to a “wasting” of the body before narrowing in its meaning to “tuberculosis.”