Finding Your Light Within

09/01/26 - The Curse of Social Media Consumption and Why Reducing It Will Benefit You

10:09am, Daniel K. Inouye airport, Oahu. It has been awhile. My creativity has continued in a different form – I’ve continued to create regular online content through my YouTube channel. But the writing, well, that’s dried up.

What I notice and what I’m very conscious of, is that I am being consumed by social media in the form of watching too many YouTube videos. For sure, I still enjoy NASA Spaceflight and Ellie In Space so that I keep up to date with the goings on at Starbase with SpaceX as well as general space launch and industry news. But I get myself caught up in consuming news broadcasts and talk about current topics and breaking news. It’s addictive. Most of it – after the initial news has been gleaned – is pure speculation and opinion. I gain nothing from this – no new information nor anything with which I can use. It becomes idle time wasting.

So, that begs the question, why do I continue to do it?

In part, it’s because the voices of the presenters are familiar. As I live alone, there is comfort to be found in hearing familiar voices that echo my own feelings and sentiments on a topic. My thoughts are reinforced and this creates a feeling of familiarisation and security.

I guess also that it numbs the brain. A lot of the time, it’s on as background noise whilst I perform some other activity. If I am fully engrossed in something that requires my attention and focus, then I listen to instrumental music. So this tells me that for the vast majority of my time, my listening and watching of these YouTube videos is wasteful.

And if it is wasteful, then why persist with it?

There is an addictive quality to it. You need to stay in in order to remain updated. You need to invest yourself so that later on, you understand and can follow what has been occurring. Fear of missing out - FOMO. The need to be part of the herd. Safety in numbers and all that.

But here is the thing. By keeping up with the constant stream and noise, what am I missing out on that could surely be of much more productive and beneficial use? My creativity, my writing, increasing my self knowledge, getting outside into nature, exercising and reading. In other words, there is a price to be paid for maintaining the up to date social media live. This is the opportunity cost – an economics term for the use of resources. You can have this or you can have that, but you cannot have both. One is taken at the cost (and loss) of the other.

What is to be done about it?

I am going to make a commitment to myself to watch less. To make positive choices about what I consume online. Space flight remains because I am deeply interested in the SpaceX development story. I need to reduce the news and the opinion consumption. This will free up more time to become productive and creative. A writer writes, right? Then I need to become all that I am and live my authentic life.

#FOMO #wastedopportunity #socialmedia #negativechoice #positvechoice #creativity #writing #positvelifechoice #reduceonline #getyourlifeback

Fundamental Purpose

Throughout its life — from seed to tree — it has never ceased to understand its fundamental purpose. It is programmed, it is encoded into its very DNA. To grow. To become all that it can be.  To always reach for the sunlight. To become everything that was preordained at the moment the seed fell from its giver.

Human Purpose

In this, we too, as humans, as life forms, have the same obligations. Our life is encoded into our DNA. 

• We too must grow because it is ordained by nature. 

• We need to receive nurture, care and love when we are young.

• We need to be protected from the elements and provided with shelter.

• We require sleep to recharge, to mend and for growth.

• We require the right kind of nourishment — the type that will fuel our growth potential — not poison us.

• And we too must seek out our true purpose.

The purpose of the seed is to become a tree — its life force tells it this.

That of the embryo is to become human and to listen to our own life force. That voice that urges us to be more. To grow and to become all that we were destined to become.

"To grow is to be human. To grow is to be alive. To grow is to be life."

Find your light within. Become the true you.

#Life #LifePurpose #Truth #Growth #Authenticity #FindingYourLightWithin #SelfDiscovery #PersonalGrowth #BeYourTruth #InnerJourney #LifeForce