I've been thinking about how my digital consumption habits have changed over the last year. Lately, I've found myself consuming too many movies and shows and spending less time reading and writing. I wake up then turn on the TV while I sip coffee, something I never used to do. I've spent years intentionally creating constraints that help me limit the amount of time I'm in front of a screen consuming content so that I can put my focus and energy into more fulfilling things (not like I never consumed any media or advocate against media consumption entirely, but it wasn't very frequent and I'd be very selective in what I watched). So what happened?
Mid-2024, before my son was born, I had been experimenting with servers and created a media server that I could access both locally and externally from my home network. This was primarily the outcome of applying some of the stuff I've been learning in a network technologies program, but I've also always enjoyed tinkering with Linux and computers in general. Without getting too technical, my small media server runs Jellyfin, connected to two 14TB drives configured in a RAID1 array, which can contain a ton of content.
Previously I had been using a small, painfully slow 4TB external drive to store my media. After transferring my files over to the new drives, I had a lot of free space so naturally I had to fill it with more content, which is itself a drawback in just how much time it takes to find, download, and manage all that content. Jellyfin does a decent job properly identifying movies and shows, but not always, so I've had to identify a lot of media files manually.
Part of me thinks that in order to justify the media servers existence and the costs associated with it, it needs to be used.
Back in October, we flew my wife's parents up here from Vietnam to help out before, during, and after our son's birth. Since our apartment was furnished for only two people and two cats, we needed to make the place comfortable for four people, two cats, and an incoming baby. We ended up buying a large sectional couch and a 65" TV so that her parents would be more comfortable and entertained during the winter months (and her dad absolutely loves watching YouTube).
Previously we only had a simple futon in our living room, but we didn't have a TV. When we wanted to watch a movie or a show, I'd have to pull out a projector, my laptop, and external hard drive, then hook it all up. We'd also have to wait until it got dark enough because we get a lot of natural light in our apartment and not it's not ideal conditions for the projector. I intentionally went with this setup to create some friction so I can't just mindlessly plop onto the couch and consume media.
I've also have had more free time on my hands. I've been on an extended paternity leave while caring for an 8 month old that demands constant attention which makes it challenging to just sit and read a book, meditate, write, or do other things that require focus. It's far easier to let a movie, documentary, or show play in the background that I'm only partially paying attention to.
All of these factors together have played a part in my new habits. I've fallen into a pattern of turning on the TV and playing something off the media server every morning and often every evening. There is some legitimate quality content like documentaries (PBS Nova is one of my favorites), lectures, good movies, and shows I know I'd watch again and that I'd recommend to friends and family that have access.
I'm not anti-media, but I can't help but consider Neil Postman's concept of amusing ourselves to death. It makes me feel like I'm learning something or doing something, but the reality is that I'm not learning hardly anything from that Netflix documentary series I downloaded. I could learn more by reading for 15 minutes about a topic rather than an hour long documentary.
So what's the solution? I know most will say something like "learn moderation", but I am the type of person who can struggle with self control. If I have a box of cookies in my home, it's very possible that I'll eat the entire box in a day, so that's why I don't keep cookies in my home. The solution might be as simple as just selling the TV. Or maybe create new constraints like "no TV within the first three hours of waking up", but that's far too easy to dismiss. The answer is to create more friction, but I'm not sure what that friction is. I'm still figuring it out.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to send comments, questions, or recommendations to hey@chuck.is.