I wrote a poem today about consumption. It’s easy to reduce ourselves to byte size pieces fit for digesting in our social media saturated realities. Whether that’s interrupting our gorgeous sunset panorama to make sure the flattened, pixelated experience pleases our friends and admirers or swiping and stacking dates desperately as if our oxygen will run out if we don’t so great is our fear of missing out.
I wrote the poem to realize the sheer exhilaration of who I am as person. I am a vibrating, resonating force that peels with laughter by exaggerating the drama in the mundane. I am a spitfire who unleashes hell and heaven in a glance. I am a fierce friend who untangles a web of irrationality and fuzzy logic for my friends with the clarity and precision of a knife slicing through butter.
So where does that leave us with consumption? I think we are highly conditioned by technology to pare down our innate worth. By appealing to likes and views, we are limiting ourselves to knee jerk reactions that don’t go beyond the surface. I personally, want to take back my value and worth and create meaningful experiences for myself and others. That’s why instead of writing this in a facebook post, I’m writing it in a blog. I want to consider the impact I have in the physical world as valuable too. Time away from the computer, reading a book or cooking or doing a dance routine. And maybe saving those status updates for real life reflections once in a while. Just some food for thought vs mindless snacking.
Sara Grimes 