All falls down
“we buy a lot of clothes but we don’t really need’em, things we buy to cover up what’s inside..”
-Kanye West
Damn, you Kanye… You were supposed to destroy the Sith not join them! While I dislike what he’s grown into, this message from “All Falls Down” stuck with me years after first hearing. The lyrics still sit with me and are reflective of the time we are in now. The time I’m in now.
Since starting The NEW YAWKER series, I’ve been focusing on my story telling and searching for my voice in all this, full-time illustrator world I've connected myself to. One story that rings louder each time I hear it is our need to disconnect from social media. As much as its has done to connect the world it has also lead to us feeling lonely and distant even from people closest to us.
Social media and everything attached to it, the 24hr news cycle. the creator economy, influencers, and the constant barrage of content flooding our feeds is overwhelming. It’s almost by design. They gave us the tools to participate but didn’t teach us how to use them responsibly.
The one thing i’m great at is spotting trends and knowing when to get out of Dodge when it's starting to get wild. My career has been lined with seeing the landscape and pivoting. Whether it was going from print to web, from Web to interactive then shifting later to motion design.
Now is the time to break through the distractions that are being thrown at us and focus on what’s really bothering us internally. Asking ourselves the questions that have been lingering in the back of our mind that we’ve been avoiding.
Pope, how would one do such a thing in the age of information?
First thing you would need to do is figure out where the source of the distractions are coming from. For me it was my phone. Shutting down 90% of the notifications I received was half the work. The other half was deleting apps off my phone that don’t need immediate responses. Most of my social apps have been removed and those that remain can’t send me updates. When I make time to check them I check them.
Other things you can do to tap into yourself.
Start a journal and ask yourself those tough questions while also giving yourself time to discover the answers. This isn’t Uber Breakthroughs or Thought Dash, this takes time.
Slow down and be intentional with the way you spend your time through out your day.
When on social media ask yourself “Do I really care about what you’re consuming or is this just something you do during the day? If the answer is is the latter you might only be doing it out of habit not as something you truly desire to do.
