How to consume media
Netflix offers me so many good recommendations, my to-watch list has grown uselessly large. The books I have on my to-read list on Goodreads have similarly reached a big number. The same is the case with my to-play list of games on Steam. When I start thinking about how much good media there is for me to consume and how little time I’ve, it becomes clear that it’s a useless excercise. Even if you spend all the waking hours of the rest of your life consuming this media you won’t be able to read every book or watch every movie that you want to watch. But even if you try to keep up with the torrent of newly created media, it will turn into a chore instead of a source of entertainment or fulfillment. It will become an obsession to complete, instead of an activity to relax your mind.
The consumption of media should be done with the intention of finding media that really appeals to you. It appeals to you so much that you will want to re-watch, re-read, re-play it in future to again feel the same excitement you felt when you sampled it first time. Then from time to time go back and watch the media you have collected in the past, instead of going through the new recommendations. What gives us joy is not what’s brand new, but what touches us in some way. The goal of media consumption is to improve the quality of your life and not to deteriorate it by developing an obsession.
No doubt the new season of “Narcos” is entertaining, but I’ll definitely derive more pleasure from re-watching “Mad Men” or “Breaking bad” episodes. The visuals, story-line and gameplay of new “Wolfenstein” is gorgeous, but I will be more happy if I can finish “Bioshock Infinite” first.
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