Content Overload
Do we need more content to consume online or do we just need to stop and listen?
I am tired of consuming content. I feel, some days, that my brain is overloaded with content. It’s all content from afar—high-level concepts that describe the state of our world or try and make sense of the myriad of problems we face collectively.
Books and essays and social media posts. Newsletters and blog posts and articles. I find more and more every day, one’s that I genuinely want to read and consume because I know their content will make my own understanding richer, but it feels as though I have reached a tipping point.
Like, I know consuming this content will lead to a better understanding, but I also know that I exist in an echo chamber (we all do, let’s be real), and the content I’m consuming is largely self-perpetuated. It’s mostly the same story or concept spun with a slightly different narrative, sometimes in a different time and place.
I suspect that the fatigue that I’m feeling is a result of too much theory and not enough practice, but the lack of practice is a symptom of lack of agency. There’s no room for practice within our current cultural context. Don’t like the genocide in Gaza? Too bad politicians won’t listen and are drinking their own Koolaid. Want sustainable food options? Too bad the price is only available to people who play to win at the game of capitalism. Stressed about climate change? You better keep driving your car and running your air conditioning because you don’t have time for alternatives. Worried about upcoming elections? Too bad the whole system is a sham and you’re just voting for different brands of the same evil.
And so we read. We write. We talk online. Sometimes in real space if we’re lucky. But still, things stay the same. We feel like we must do SOMETHING but the only available option is discourse when what we really need is action that is intangible.
At the end of the podcast episode with
, she made mention of a similar type of this fatigue.Like we spend so much of our time learning from other humans, you know? And it's not giving us a full picture of what it means to live on this earth. So maybe that's where you're feeling the pull away from creating more artwork and stuff. And you're saying, Can we just stop? And can we watch and learn from the plants and the insects and the birds and the animals and let the creation that's already existing give all the knowledge and truth that we need, and let's just rest in that?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this. About observing instead of creating. About listening instead of speaking.
And these thoughts make me slightly uncomfortable about producing more content for the content machines.
So many of us feel that this has become our job: to speak out, draw attention to the problems, and provide a collective platform for dismantling the status quo—in theory at least. We wish to find others in the world to share this space, to foster dialogue, to explore solutions. The internet has become our platform. Our outlet.
But what if what we need is less online collaboration and more in-person observation? What if we all took that attention and focus and shifted it to actual dialogue and action with people who are keen to make IRL changes to the way we live our lives together? What if we just need to listen more and talk less?
To be transparent: I love Novitas and I’m excited to continue exploring these stories with people who are asking the right questions and making those changes IRL. I’m not going to stop making content for the content machine, because that content also helps keep me grounded.
But I do wonder if we’ve all become super saturated with the dialogue and theory from endless (sometimes mindless) online consumption.
No happy moral at the end of this post, but I will share some of the content that I’ve been consuming lately.
The Gift | A Reindeer Herder's Dream - a beautiful documentary that shares the story of passing tradition from one generation to the next. This made me think about colonialism as a global construct and also what it might be like to have elders that carry tradition that isn’t rooted in capitalist culture.
Toi Marie talking about high school - It’s been said before and it will be said again: school doesn’t serve our kids. It’s a capitalist colonial tool, and we need to deprioritize its importance in the lives of our kids.
Erasure in the SDE Community - Two of the best,
and , chatted about a recent book that was released that draws heavily on the work of without credit. It’s pretty shocking that anyone could do research in the area of self-directed education without acknowledging the foundational work that Akilah has shared, but the (cough cough) blatant plagiarism that has been brought to light is pretty dang harmful.Project Kamp - If you haven’t come across Project Kamp, it’s a really cool initiative restoring some land in Portugal and exploring different ways to live in less harmful and more collective ways. It’s 100% my Youtube guilty pleasure. They release a new video every week and this week, they were restoring an old ruin.
As a writer I often worry about adding to the excess of content but I also really value being able to express my perspective, feelings, and observations in words. But I do think it helps so much to have a balance and engaging with the world, observing nature, creating can allow me to process and contemplate some of the content I encounter and also help me to feel a little more grounded when my busy brain is going all the time.
Yes, i feel this too. I’ve been growing food this summer and wow does it feel good to have my hands in soil and not on a keyboard. I am exhausted with trying to keep up with all the content i’m subscribed to; like, it’s all amazing stuff but my tomatoes need water and I need to dig a hole for an apple tree!