Don't Fall Into modern practice.
An antithesis to meaninglessness in the age of consumption.
It’s a safe bet you’re reading this on your phone. I’m about to ask you to do something that no one else online wants you to do: to click away from my page … for a moment.
Swipe to settings and check your screen time - Go on.
Now that you’re back I should say sorry. That probably didn’t make you feel great but it’s not my intention to attack you, only to point out that you are not alone. A 2024 survey of 2,000 Americans found that the average person spends about six hours a day consuming media.1 For Gen Z, that climbs to roughly six hours and 36 minutes, and about one in ten respondents in that age group admit to spending 15+ hours consuming content.
That means an average American spends up to 42 hours a week, 92 days a year, or about 20 years in a life. Over an 80-year lifespan this accumulates to 25% of your life spent watching, scrolling and listening. Once you account for the third of your life you spend asleep (That is, if you are getting enough sleep), media consumption then takes up roughly 35 percent of your waking life.
That leaves you with only 33 years of life not consuming media or sleeping. Of course, that is the time reserved for working.
But this media consumption not only costs us time, it costs us money. Just for the privilege to consume all this media, a typical American spends about $67 a month on streaming, social‑media, and audio subscriptions. The advertising slipped between the entertainment influences our purchases, with an average respondent spending roughly $155 dollars a month on marketed products. Even when a platform is “free”, like TikTok or Instagram, you pay with your data, your information, and your privacy.
In fact our consumption is so gluttonous that we cannot even contain ourselves to a single screen. 78% of Gen Z respondents stated that they used their phone during a movie, with an average of 5 rewinds needed to follow along due to the distractions.
Again, my intention is not to make you feel awful, only to emphasize how compromised following modern practice makes us. The entire media ecosystem, the way we consume, is engineered to keep you scrolling, watching and listening. Algorithms feed you emotions, entertainment, and even answers to questions you don’t even realize you are asking. They decide how you feel and what you will care about. They shape who you think you are, and who you will become. All of this consumption has its consequences, And you are the victim.
According to a study by the Harvard Graduate School of Education:
“Nearly 3 in 5 young adults (58%) reported that they lacked “meaning or purpose” in their lives in the previous month. Half of young adults reported that their mental health was negatively influenced by “not knowing what to do with my life.””2
This lack of purpose, the feeling of meaninglessness, is not new. Philosophers have grappled with the search for meaning for centuries, and often before a world filled with such potent distraction. But there is a solution to our modern aliment:
Create Art
The modern practice is to live the lives assigned to us, to hollow out our cores and to fill them with uninspired, manufactured content. it is to be complacent, to lack a will, and to meet the suffering of those around us with apathy.
Maybe you’re not an artist, and you take the idea of Creating Art with a shrug. The trouble with modern practice is that we have diminished being artistic to solely drawing, painting, or a tangible medium. Art is not confined to the tangible. You may not paint, sing, or draw but you still can create art. Being an Artist means to lead an artistic life. The greatest artist, or creators, in our history did not just paint, or write, or sing. They built and reshaped the world according to their own vision and in doing so created their own meaning.
They rejected the identities pushed upon them forcefully by others, and even those dictated compassionately. They did not listen to fear, they moved with faith and conviction. They created the greatest art one is capable of, a life reflective of their ideas, values, and identities. They did not drift aimlessly through life, through responsibilities, but worked with intention to artfully live. This is what we stand for.
Modern Practice is a collective which seeks to promote self actualization through the means of creation.
To expose the unknown and underrated artists of the world, and to work endlessly to provide the opportunities for creation to those born without them.
Embrace a way of living that is true. Embrace a way of living that is authentic. Whatever you do, do not fall into modern practice.
Sources
Media Consumption Trend Report. (n.d.). https://talkerresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Talker-Research-Media-Consumption-Trend-Report.pdf
Cashin, A. (2024, July 23). On edge: Understanding and preventing Young Adults’ mental health challenges. Making Caring Common. https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/on-edge
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