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Be a Creator or a Consumer… the Choice is Yours!
This difference will shape everything in your work
“There are consumers and creators. Consumers spend five hours per day engaging with content. I’m a creator. I want to create the content that people spend all their free time engaging with.”
At the time, I didn’t know my new roommate all too well. He seemed like a nice guy at first. But I’m almost certain my comments rubbed him the wrong way.
It wasn’t long before I discovered he was the angry, sociopathic, lone wolf type who spent all day and night drinking beer and watching Star Wars, leaving for casual, part-time work only occasionally as he found himself able to carry his lazy, drunken (or hungover) body out the door.
How Much Time do You Spend Engaging with Content?
BroadbandSearch has shown that people spend an average of 58 minutes per day on Facebook, 40 minutes per day on YouTube, and 53 minutes per day on Instagram. They’ve got some interesting stats on other social networks too.
I honestly think those numbers are low.
The stat that I often like to refer to is from 2018, which showed that U.S. adults spent nearly six hours per day watching video (TechCrunch).
Just because those six hours are distributed across different platforms (Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, etc.) doesn’t mean the average has changed one iota.
If anything, with the pandemic, I would suspect these numbers have shot through the roof.
You Can Still Consume
“But… I love watching my favorite YouTuber!”
Consumption isn’t the problem. Especially when the choice is intentional.
But classic personal development has it that if you just took 30 minutes out of those six hours and dedicated it to study in a specific area, you could become an expert in that field.
I have had people debate this point, but the adage that you can “stay ahead a lesson,” in my experience, is 100% true. This comes from someone who occasionally taught piano (guitar is my main instrument), despite not being able to play piano all that…
