By: Caio Maximus (Level C2)

When was the last time you created something in your free time? Anything. A text, a drawing, a song, a building project or a video. Even with so many options, I would probably be correct guessing you don’t recall ever doing it. But worry not! You are part of the statistics!

Our times are characterized by a sharp decline in the engagement in creative and artistic activities among common people, even more drastic regarding youth. Music instruments sales get lower each year, kids don’t build plastic models anymore, art supplies shops are diversifying and turning into stationaries while stationaries are closing and turning into drugstores.

When concerning digital works, the situation is still dire, despite what we hear on the news. Adults know how to operate editing softwares but mostly use them for work. While teenagers, who could do it for fun, don’t know how to operate the softwares. Their knowledge is frequently assessed as “lacking” when the topic is basic text, image and video editing programs (even for simplified tools like Canva). So much for the “digital native” generation.

So where does our free time go? If not creating, then we are consuming. But the problem is not in consuming per se. It is insanity to say that humanity hasn’t been consuming before. There are plays and songs of old, or even last centuries books and movies to stop me from saying that.

However, the mainstream content currently consumed is incomparable with these ones. Picture and video sharing media are the most prevalent forms of creative content consumed nowadays. But with their reels and shorts, they are incapable of conveying any information beyond curious facts and anecdotes, while the picture ones are used basically to feed our morbid curiosity on (sub)celebrities’ routines and their ostentatious ways of living.

Even more worrying is the highly addictive character of these vehicles of information. Neurologists and behavioural scientists are in the payrolls of media companies and have the sole purpose of maximizing the chance of you not putting down your phone and keep scrolling or watching. Colours, icons, and sounds are carefully designed and positioned to achieve peak addictiveness. Even maximum video duration, which is required to be low, usually under a minute, to always keep you hooked on a new story or gag. Another dangerous form of entertainment that employs such neurological tactics are video games, especially cell phone ones. It should be plain to see that this low-effort addictive business model has comfort as its main attribute and your uninterest in doing any other activities as its goal.

The goal of this article is for you reader to reach this part wanting to change, in case you recognized yourself as another victim of modern day entertainment, or avoid these tactics, in case you are still free of them. Reading a few pages before bed or simply trying to put down our phone a bit more are small but mighty steps in the road of confronting social media titans. It might take some effort to rewire our brain and rewrite our habits, but know it will pay dividends in your life, from teaching you new skills to reestablishing your connection with the world and yourself.

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