Because I work at a library, it strikes me how much people consume. Most of our circulation centers on DVDs and technology. Many patrons, particularly retirees, watch a lot of TV. A lot. We allow 8 DVD checkouts, including TV series. Many people visit the library three times a week and get their limit. Now, I’m glad we can help them save money on cable, but that is a lot of consumption. Likewise, we have readers that consume the same amount of books. While books are better for the mind than television, that too is a lot of consumption.
We’ve begun to expand our anime and manga selection. And they’ve been popular. But all of this makes me wonder about our consumption habits. I’m guilty of it too. I’ve consumed a lot of video games in my time. I was addicted to Diablo 2 back in the day. Television isn’t really my thing. I watch it, but I can’t sit for hours. Even a two-hour movie leaves me feeling antsy. But video games and books, I can easily spend 4-6 hours on them if I don’t limit myself.
All of us are consumers. We slurp up entertainment experiences (everything we do gives us experience points!) without giving it much thought. However, I’ve found more satisfaction in creation than in consuming. A few years ago, I decided to make every day a creative day in some form. I’ve always like drawing and painting, but I had fallen out of the habit. I picked it back up. I rediscovered how much I enjoy writing too. I made that part of my daily schedule; sadly, it has crowded out drawing. I also picked up cultivating (ehem, killing) bonsai. I’ve dabbled in video game creation too.
Soon, I found my days were stuffed with creative hobbies. Video games and television faded into the background. I took to scheduling every hour of my day so I could fit in everything I wanted to do. Well, even as a kid I liked to schedule my activities, but now my creative hours became sacrosanct. Television time and video game playing became a scheduled corner of my week. I watch a little TV, usually anime, to unwind for sleep; this is still work related now that I think about it. Strangely, scheduling has given me a sense of freedom. Although I have eased a little.
Whenever I don’t have a creative day, I feel lost. I feel adrift and dissatisfied. TV and, to a lesser extent, reading doesn’t satisfy me like making something does. If I don’t write, I feel a little depressed that day. If I don’t write for several days, I feel irritable. This creative drive makes people feel dissatisfied with life if they don’t cultivate it. Everyone has a creative impulse–it comes from God. It might drive you to write fan fiction or create manga. It might drive you to make cabinets or work on a car.
Consumption provides fuel for that creative impulse. It fills the well we draw from when we produce from our imaginations. But too much consumption, as I witness every day at the library, hurts us. It makes our lives dull and breeds dissatisfaction. Each time we watch an anime, we are saying no to something else we could be doing or creating. We need to consume stories. It is a human need. But we are also natural story tellers. Luckily, the Internet makes it easy to tell stories to others. But we can also just use a pencil and paper and create.
Creating takes courage. You will feel inadequate no matter how many times you create. It requires you to have the mind of a beginner. Each time you create, you learn something new. You change. Both make people uncomfortable, but that discomfort shows you are growing as a person. It also teaches patience. Creativity requires marathon thinking. And this goes against consumer thinking, which is impulsive and now-focused. Projects take a lot of time to work toward completion, but we should focus on the process, not the end result.
Now, I admit that I struggle with that, particularly with drawing. Focusing on the end result frustrates me because I can never get what I imagine exactly to the page. However, whenever I focus on the process, I find my work is not only better, but I feel more motivated.
As an anime and manga fan, you are already part of a creative community. You can blog, write fan fiction, draw fan art, sculpt figures, create your own manga, and create your own anime. Anime and manga offers a deep well you can dip into for inspiration. It offers a visual language that gives you a framework to build from. You have advantages over sportaku and many other consumption-focused media cultures. After all, the National Football League (NFL) doesn’t exactly encourage fan stories about its players (maybe someone should make NFL teams into an anime like Hetalia?).
But anime and manga can also encourage pure consumption. Now, it is fine to just consume if you have creative outlets elsewhere. But if you only consume, without having some sort of creative life, you are ignoring a vital part of your humanity. Television watching has been closely tied to depression. In fact, the risk of clinical depression increases with the time spent watching television (Lucas, 2011; Firger, 2015).
Creativity is also a part of living a samurai life or an iki life. Samurai had creative hobbies, from bonsai to flower arranging to poetry and swordsmanship. A sophisticated life requires creative hobbies too.
Try different things. Try writing. Try to sculpt. Try martial arts. Garden. Creative hobbies vary more than consumer culture does. In fact, if you are inspired by Marie Kondo and the minimalism/existentialism movements, creativity helps you. You will find yourself using fewer material things to try to fill your dissatisfaction. Of course, if you are like me, you will end up collecting things related to your hobbies. I enjoy art and office supplies, for example. Aside from books (My biggest consumption weakness.), I try to live as a minimalist. I don’t want a lot of objects. Empty space pleases me more. But before I rediscovered my creativity, I wanted a lot of things.
Consumer culture doesn’t want you to feel satisfied. You don’t buy as much. Of course, it’s fine if you live a creative life and still want to collect manga, anime, figures, and other things. I collect ukiyo-e for example. But collecting is different from consuming to fill emotional needs creativity fills.
Give the creative life a try. Try different hobbies until you find one you enjoy. You will find you will feel less depressed. You will feel content. In turn, you will find yourself saving more money because you won’t be spending to fill a void.
References
Firger, Jessica (2015) Depression, loneliness linked to binge-watching TV. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/depression-loneliness-linked-to-binge-watching-television/
Lucas, Michael & others (2011) Relation Between Clinical Depression Risk and Physical Activity and Time Spent Watching Television in Older Women: a 10-year Prospective Follow-up Study. Am J Epidermiol. 174(9) 1017-1027.
I can relate thoroughly! Thanks for sharing this.
Great reminder! I really enjoy your writing.
Thank you!