digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job

know thyself

There is a new lifestyle imposed on almost the entire world, willingly or unwillingly, perhaps by powerful people or by many small people that want to be powerful, which somehow affects all ordinary people: a consumption-oriented life. Fast consumption, constant consumption, more consumption.

I don’t have much to say about the “shopping” side of this consumption craze because it’s a topic that’s been around for many years, born out of -ism movements and studied numerous times through -ology disciplines. It has been the subject of public service announcements, romantic comedies, and personal development books. The public has been constantly educated about it for years. Two guys known as The Minimalists and some “smart” people like Marie Kondo made a fortune out of this movement. Personally, I believe I am a conscious consumer, and the shopping craze doesn’t affect me much, so I want to look at the other, often-discussed side of the issue.

The consumption I will discuss is digital content, information, and emotion/thought consumption. I know there are social science studies that delve into the intersections and background connections of all these consumptions, but as an ordinary person, I want to talk about the effects on my own life, particularly my professional development.

Although it has been on my mind for a long time, I haven’t been able to read a comprehensive book based on these studies (the reason being the vicious cycle based on this topic), but I have consumed plenty of content… I’ve watched various TED talks, several indie YouTuber videos with a wholesome background, selling personal development under the hood on their newly launched channels, and of course, read tweets… I’ve also had plenty of opportunities to observe myself.

At this point I am convinced that fast consumption is harmful to the brain, mind, and soul.

The main reason I pursue this topic is that, aside from all the side effects in personal life, it also prevents me from being better at my profession as a brain-worker as Jules Payot puts it.

In disciplines like software engineering, constantly improving oneself and being in a state of continuous learning is an inevitable process. Even if you don’t put in extra effort and just try to do your job, you have to learn a new concept or technology. If you do put in the extra effort, you become someone who does their job better. Since graduating from undergraduate studies (which marks exactly one year as I write this post), putting in extra effort has been my top priority. Working more, reading more, knowing more. In addition to technical studies, I also read about and received advice on soft skills related to “software crafting.” One of my first mistakes, I think, was taking every kind of advice from everyone. Even if I didn’t implement them directly, these pieces of advice took up space in my mind, and thinking “what if that’s better” prevented me from putting any of them into practice.

The problem with online advice is that the person writing the blog post is doing so entirely from their own perspective and lifestyle. They have no idea about you, and you have no idea about them. There’s no guarantee that what works for them will work for you. Moreover, you don’t get a chance to question causality, you just read the advice, consume it, and move on. It takes up space in your mind and on your to-do list, but you don’t get a chance to internalize or filter this topic. You don’t even realize that you should actually do so.

One of the pieces of advice I took without realizing it was to systematize the mentioned studies, work regularly, and similar. Once that idea put in my mind, things became complicated for me. While working full-time, I had to balance my personal life and stick to the plan.

No matter how much your willpower sticks to the plan, your health, developments in your life, and your brain, which sometimes refuses to accept more information, don’t always stick to the plan. When this happens, it becomes difficult to establish the system I mentioned, and you start looking for more advice, reading more blogs. You find yourself in a quest for productivity, feeling productive because of the quest, but not really doing any productive work.

Advice also has the effect of reducing creativity and problem-solving skills. When I have a problem, technical or other, the first thing I do is research the solution. As a result, I don’t get enough chance to think about my problem, let alone produce a solution, and I don’t fully understand the problem.

I’ve “consumed” what I should do and how I should do it many times from different people. With all this information occupying my brain, I no longer had the energy and resources to produce a tangible output.

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Because of my profession, I like learning different concepts from different fields. I am particularly curious about the low-level infrastructures and systems behind high-level tools, and I am aware of the contribution of knowing these to doing my job well. However, because of the constant rush and haste imposed by social media in my life, I can’t devote enough time to these resources. Because I am so used to seeing information, quickly taking it in, and moving on to another topic. Because the short content I constantly consume, whether written or visual, has made me accustomed to this.
While reading a technically deep book, re-reading the same page feels like a waste of time; every piece of information I have to go over because I couldn’t understand it at once makes me feel inadequate and late because I can’t just scroll past it.

I want to know everything, immediately, quickly. Since this is not humanly possible, I end up doing nothing.

I can’t think long-term; I can’t stop myself from thinking that working on a book for 6 months, doing its projects, is a huge waste of time for me, and because I already feel late, I find myself, yet again, in a cycle.

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When I’m focused solely on consuming, my ability to produce naturally decreases. I include speaking, being able to express oneself, and having a good command of words in this context. After knowing myself as someone who has always been good with words for years, seeing that I can’t choose the right word when speaking, or that I can’t convey the message or information I want to give more clearly and simply when writing, naturally bothers me. Although it is said that software development is an antisocial job, you constantly need to communicate with people, either in writing or verbally, and you need to express what you have done and what you will do well. I am approaching the point of losing this skill by consuming instead of producing.

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While all this disrupts progress and confuses my mind, I also have to deal with the physical and mental side effects of fast consumption. Difficulty concentrating, lack of focus, inability to understand what I read, stress, anxiety. I see these kinds of complaints from many people lately, and in my opinion, our biggest common ground is digital content consumption.

The relativity of time is a reality I feel to the core while doom scrolling. Besides the lost time, there’s the confusion after realizing it and putting the phone down, trying to get my dazed mind back to normal. And then, not finding anything to do, not being able to putting yourself together, and reaching for the phone again.

Everyone has seen the articles about the brain’s approach to social media content, which offers a quick, easily accessible way that makes you happy or, even if it doesn’t make you happy, offers an escape from the thing that makes you unhappy.

When you put these into words or write them down, it bothers you a lot, but I think knowing yourself is the most important thing to do before changing yourself. I know what I’m doing wrong, and now it’s documented in front of me. I also know what I need to work on.

We are talking about the harms, but I have always been fascinated by the opportunities the internet offers. Being able to communicate and chat with someone from anywhere in the world within seconds is an invaluable blessing. It just takes a little effort to filter to see and reach the right people’s content. Otherwise, I don’t think completely withdrawing would be very beneficial in my industry and the era I live in.

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I won’t go against what I mentioned so I won’t end this problem-filled post with advice or plans. That’s why I started with the quote “know thyself.” I just tried to see and make the problem tangible. I will stop researching what I can do for a while. First, I plan to clear my mind of clutter, quit this fast and excessive consumption habit I have acquired without realizing it, and then learn how to consume slowly and gradually. I have enough raw information to discover how to do all this myself; I will now give myself the opportunity to process it.