You know you’re guilty of it. The time spent mindlessly reading blogs at 3am when you should be asleep. The “just one more link” lie you tell yourself during your lunch break. The moment you realize that you’ve missed your bus stop because you were too busy drooling over a tweet from Lady Gaga. It’s called information binging, and for those that have constant internet access, is a seemingly impossible urge to resist. Isn’t information supposed to make our lives easier, helping us guide our actions to make fewer mistakes?
In my opinion, it appears to be inundating the process of actually living and experiencing life. For instance, let’s say you have decided to take up cooking. It’s not a difficult skill, but it’s one that seems to intimidate many people. If you cook a lot already, then you know that there is no correlation between the amount of reading material you consume on the topic and your actual skill level in the kitchen. You can re-watch a video on how to julienne an onion up to a thousand times, but you can’t possibly assume you’ll get it right on the first try when you finally pick up the blade. Where’s all the reading and video watching now? How much time did you spend consuming information on the topic, but never attempting to apply the knowledge? How much did you actually “learn?” Obese with knowledge, it came time to run…and you were hopelessly out of shape, devoid of any skills you set out to learn.
What’s my prognosis? We’ll soon claim our expertise on all topics from needlework to Kung-fu, but when asked to display our “talents” in a real-world context (the only one that really matters), we’ll fall flat on our faces. My prescription to reverse this malaise? Stop being an “armchair expert” and become an armed novice. Begin your own apprenticeship with the internet’s deep well of knowledge as your mentor. You’ve done your perfunctory research on how to whittle, now make yourself a canoe oar.
This is a call to action, to re-engage in the human experience (with the help, not the dependency, of the knowledge of those that came before us). At Blueye Creative, we aim to connect people with what they love, not force-feed them mindless information. We even built a platform for the sole purpose of engaging audiences about things that matter to them. Don’t believe us? Then check out our Twitter handle at @alwaysbesocial and find out for yourself!
