Consumption/Production

Posted December 22nd, 2009 by Chris Gurney

Lately I’ve started to think about what I do on a daily basis in terms of two things: consumption, and production.

Consumption is what you do when you absorb material produced by other people. Whether this is listening to music, watching TV, reading, or surfing the Internets.

Production is creating stuff for myself: Writing, web design, working towards a project, cooking… whatever.

I know I’m doing too much of the former, and not enough of the latter.

Some consumption is OK, of course: consumption of certain content leads to better produced content. But, in general, if I can’t connect something I’m consuming to something I want to be producing, I’m effectively wasting my time with it.

This is not to say that I’m against having fun, which generally involves consumption: watching movies, reading my friends’ activity streams, and so on. At some level I need to satisfy my basic social needs. The trick, however, is to not let these activities consume me.

In aiming to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle, I find that this metaphor factors nicely in that context, as well: We really should be considering what we consume, and by how much. Consuming less also contributes to a simpler lifestyle.

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