This is why you should create more than you consume
Let’s be honest: doomscrolling is the modern black hole. You tell yourself you’ll just check your phone for five minutes, and suddenly it’s an hour later and you’re deep into reels of cooking hacks you’ll never try, gym memes, and dogs wearing sunglasses. And honestly, can you even tell me what you watched today? Probably not. It all blurs together like background noise. Quick dopamine hit, zero nutrition.
I’m not saying this from some pedestal. I fall into the same patterns. There are days when I’ve scrolled so much, I feel like my thumb got more exercise than the rest of my body. It’s normal. But normal doesn’t always mean good. The problem with overconsumption is that it leaves you passive, filling time instead of creating something that adds to your life.
Creativity Doesn’t Need an Audience
The shift happens when you start putting more energy into creation. For me, that’s been 7997, and also photography. Both give me a way to take all that input and turn it into output. But here’s the key: creativity doesn’t have to be public. You don’t need likes, comments, or an audience. Write something just for yourself. Capture photos you never post. Sketch, build, sing, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. Nothing has to, but everything can. That’s the beauty of it.
And let’s be real: creating isn’t always glamorous. Sometimes you’re in a flow and things just click. Other times it feels like you’re pulling teeth. With my photography, I have phases where I’m shooting nonstop, and then weeks where I barely touch the camera. That’s fine. Creativity has seasons, and you don’t need to be “on” all the time. What matters is that you return to it, even in small ways.
When you create, you’re not just entertaining yourself, you’re growing. You’re training your brain to solve, to express, to shape. Consumption can inspire you, sure, but if you stop there, you’re basically just a collector of other people’s ideas. Creation is where you move from spectator to participant. You add. You leave something behind, even if it’s only for yourself.
I’m still figuring this out. I slip back into old habits, but slowly I notice a difference: the more I create, the less attractive that endless scroll becomes. Because here’s the truth: scrolling fades. Creating sticks.
By the way, there’s a comment section below this blog. Drop your screen time there and share your thoughts. How do you deal with consumption vs. creation?
And if you want to dive deeper into why creativity matters so much, I wrote another blog on that: Why Self-Actualization and Creativity Are Essential for Everyone. They’re connected, and together they paint the bigger picture.
