‘Story of Now’
What are the contemporary issues that concern/interest you the most?
Issues that concern me currently:
Global warming, the economy, the housing crisis, the war in Gaza, women’s rights in the US, abortion laws, student loans, raising minimum wage –just to name a few.
You can imagine it’s difficult to step outside sometimes. Morally I cannot choose one that interests me the most when they’re all intertwined in the same past of hate. I care so deeply about everything that sometimes I just need a power off button when it comes to these concerns. But rather than unplugging myself from the digital world, I tend to consume more. More media, more images, more pictures, more influences –anything and everything to potentially shield myself from all the hurt– only hurting myself further in the process.
If there is a contemporary issue that concerns me the most, it is the idea of overconsumption.
Personally I consume too much of everything, but I used to believe it was only affecting my physical fit-ness. Too much olive oil, too much alcohol, too much sugar, those types of overconsumption were the reasons for my sluggishness, my hopelessness, or my tiredness of life, right? Well not exactly… Per the screen time setting on my iphone, I spend over 2 hours of my day on social media. I consume a concerning amount of so-called bite size pieces of alternate realities, that may appear spotless, perfect, and desirable but cause significant damage to my own reality. I spend so much of my life just saving and pinning images and videos of these perfect moments in hope of crafting my own replicas some day. And guess what? They stay pinned on my “2023 aspirations” board on pinterest, hardly ever crossing into my physical life. The fact that none of these ideas come to fruition isn’t the only downside; but the real evil lies in my comparison of experiences, of lusting for a reality that I probably wouldn’t even enjoy if it was mine, the process of letting time fly by without enjoying it. This overconsumption promotes my own disengagement from not only my geographical location or community, but from my current reality and the pivotal life experiences found within.
