When I was a kid, my parents would sometimes admonish me for wasting my life in front of “the boob tube.” (Readers from certain generations know that means television.) I scoffed and continued watching reruns of The Simpsons.
But a funny thing happens when you get older: You often realize that your parents were right. It’s usually much more fulfilling, more memorable, and more fun to actually do something. Doing is greater than watching.
And this isn’t just about binging shows on Netflix. We now have access to an unprecedented amount of information: data, ideas, social media updates, news. The variety is astonishing. The pace is overwhelming. There are benefits, of course, but I fear we’re too often blind to the downsides.
It’s often noted how the constant barrage of information shortens our attention span and reduces our ability to do important, focus-driven work, but today I want you to consider a different problem of life in the information age. Seth Godin eloquently put it this way:
“Our awareness has been stretched wider than ever in history, but often at the cost of taking away a lifetime of experiences.”1
It’s easier than ever to spend your life watching rather than doing. News and social media and the latest shows all feel urgent, so they draw us in. But the more time we spend at this information buffet, the less time we have to spend actually living. Life is short, and it’s meant to be spent doing rather than watching.
Now, I realize that our cultural default is to prioritize being up to date on all the latest media, so here are some ideas for overcoming this tendency.
Television
Don’t own one. I haven’t owned a TV for years, and my life has been richer for it. When I want to watch TV, I can do that on my computer. But a huge television does not dominate the living area of my home, which communicates that TV is not the default option.
When I do watch things, I limit how much I can watch at one time, I mindfully choose things that aren’t counter to my values, and I don’t watch reruns. Most of the time, I default to educational videos on YouTube in order to practice relentless learning.
Sports
I don’t watch sports. When people ask me why, I say I’d rather play sports than watch them, or that I’d rather do things myself than watch other people doing things. I’ll never be a professional athlete, but I’d rather be a participant than a spectator.
Now, I’m not saying you should never watch sports. (Saying that in the same week as the Super Bowl is tantamount to blasphemy in America.) What I am saying is that your life will be richer if you play more often than you watch.
News
If you’re an avid follower of the news, then please know that you can dramatically reduce your news consumption. Nothing bad will happen because you’re not up to date on the latest political drama, and your life is not made better by reading about murders each morning. If it’s really important, someone else will tell you about it.
Instead of trying to stay on top of everything, work on getting to the bottom of things. Figure something important out, solve problems in your sphere of influence, and spend time working on things you care about.
Social Media
Quit social media. Or at least strategically trim down your use of it. If you spend your life looking at what other people are doing and reading what other people are thinking, you’ll have no time to do or think for yourself.
I use Facebook for business purposes, and it’s a convenient way to receive party invites, so I still have it. But long ago, I made a choice that effectively killed my newsfeed and made it nearly impossible to waste time there: I unfollowed everyone. Your newsfeed is full of the people you follow and their updates. If you unfollow everyone (save, perhaps, your immediate family or best friends), your newsfeed will become ads and posts you’ve already seen, and you’ll quickly disengage. I also don’t have social media on my phone, and I don’t allow my computer to save my log-in information, taking advantage of The 20-Second Rule.
Live your life. Post on occasion if you really want to, and enjoy a feed from time to time if you must, but don’t do either of those things at the expense of actually living.
Watching Video Games
The most recent development in the age of watching rather than doing – and the most absurd – is the trend of watching other people play video games. If you’ve never heard of this, prepare to be shocked.
The most popular live-streaming service for watching people play is Twitch. Over a million people watch gamers on Twitch every day, and all told, they watch about one billion hours per month!2
It’s an open debate as to whether playing video games is a waste of time, but watching them certainly is. Personally, I favor table-top games because they’re less addictive and require more social interaction. Instead of watching, actually play some games yourself because 1) it will be more fun, and 2) it’s good cross-training for your brain.
Dare to be Different
The average American watches over three hours of TV per day3 and spends over two hours on social media.4 That’s about one-third of our waking hours spent consuming rather than doing, watching rather than living.
But just because most people are wasting lives in this way doesn’t mean you have to. Embrace being weird. Dare to be different.
Don’t just be a consumer of culture; make it. Create, write, draw, paint, sculpt, make music. Don’t just watch politics; participate in it. Campaign, protest, vote. Don’t just read the news of what’s wrong with the world; work to make things better. Volunteer, teach, give to charity, lead by example.
Take the Long-View
When you’re on your deathbed, looking back at your life, will you regret the shows you didn’t watch and the status updates you missed? Or will you regret the actual experiences you never had time for because you were too busy watching life to actually live it?
1 Godin, Seth. “Awareness vs. experience.” January 25th, 2020.
2 https://twitchtracker.com/statistics
3 https://www.statista.com/statistics/186833/average-television-use-per-person-in-the-us-since-2002/
4 https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/average-daily-time-on-social-media