In our current world of 2025, a person’s attention span is constantly being assaulted from all directions. You are always surrounded by media wherever you go. Your phone, your computer, the TV, the car, and everywhere in between are somehow connected to the internet and blasting your brain with a load of new information. We fight existentialism by drowning out any thoughts about our lives and force ourselves into a mind-numbing state as constant media input washes over us. 

Not all media is bad. The “Human Experience™️” is one defined by media. Humans are storytellers, and we have been for all of history. We grow our personal experiences vicariously through the experiences of others. As the cost of living increases, many of us rarely leave our nearby vicinity due to the cost of travel. We can use media as a way to escape our current situation. At some point, though, it stops being helpful and inspirational and starts to become compulsive.

At one point, I tried very hard to learn the art of nuance. I would eat the things I wanted, but I would do so mindfully to a point where a small portion felt large. I would take time just to sit in silence and appreciate my reality. I would appreciate all different kinds of media but in a thoughtful way as I explored what the media made me feel. Now, things are different. I am compulsively overeating and starting to gain weight. From the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep, I am checking my phone on a regular cycle. Each pick-up of the device has me opening some sort of social media, checking my email, checking my texts, and then putting it down. I will then watch a show or play a video game. The shows have been good as I have started to pay attention to artist intent, but the video games are becoming a problem. As in my childhood, I am using the video games as a place to escape to. I don’t want to be me…I want to be whatever character I am playing. I don’t want to think about my current money situation, so I escape to a game where I can accumulate power and wealth without the stabbing pain in my gut every time I spend a dollar. 

I used to sit down and appreciate the nuanced flavor of a cup of black coffee, but now I fill it with cream and sweetener and drink it quickly while listening to a YouTube video while also playing a video game at the same time. I’ve changed. I want to go back, but the world waiting for me outside of the video game is the most difficult that it has ever been. The new president is making my future career look difficult to manage. The student debt I am in is starting to pile higher and higher as I continue to push through my course load. Each dollar I spend comes with another wave of pain and guilt. I want to appreciate the world, but I think the second I stop thinking about a fictional world, the reality of the world around me is so oppressive that it pushes me back into the artificial reality.

Tomorrow, I’m going to brew a cup of coffee and sit on the couch and appreciate my own company. I’m going to take my laptop to the library to do work for class while reflecting on the social worker I will one day become. I am going to take a step from the whirlwind of digital maximalism that I live in to one of appreciation of the little things. Tomorrow is the day I take my power back.