This is not an attempt at nostalgic musings, but an observation of our current media environment. As a kid writing stories in my childhood, making movies in high school, studying filmmaking in college, I used to prioritize "getting in the zone", with less concern about the "business of life". Music flowing in the background, playing out loud. Art on the walls, words spilling unrestrained out of my finger tips. Media consumption more intentional and limited. No mobile phones or touchscreens yet, no endless scrolling through aimless algorythmically constructed collections. I didn’t watch many TV shows, much less binge them. I’d watch movies - in theaters or DVD rental (before that, VHS). Now, I often fantasize about a return to that lifestyle. But that is an attempt counter to the greater current of society, the river we all get carried away by.

Without deeper analysis or meditation, most people on a regular basis, including myself, seem to function as if it’s our purpose to take part in an all-encompassing scheme to strain all our nerves to find sustenance and to vie against each other for supremacy. But we all have a deep inner longing for something else. Perhaps it’s unconscious in many of us, dormant, but that unfulfilled longing manifests itself in depression, mental illness, stress, anxiety. We may enjoy where we live, the people we're with, the entertaining and enjoyable and pleasurable parts of our routines, but deep inside perhaps we aspire towards a better society. In a sense it's part of human nature, because if we were too content with the status quo, we'd have no impetus for change and further evolution.

But even those of us privileged enough to live comfortably, who truly enjoys spending our days in boxes? Being boxed into cars, boxed into offices, boxed into houses most of the time? Early forms of coffins. We know we can't spend too long inside them. Everyone is in a scramble attempting to find resources to escape all the boxes as soon and as often as they can. Traveling, partying, hikes into nature, explorations of the mysterious, the chaotic and uncontrollable. Art and music are expressions of these convulsions of humanity in attempt to break free from these physical confines which we seem to depend on. Even the art and music has been confined into commercialized and polished garbage. Like pets they have been domesticated and genetically bred for optimal consumption for profit. Even platforms for user-generated "free" content has become a competition for views and subscriptions, where the lowest common denominator takes all. The essence of art has been warped beyond recognition.

We are all on a road subconsciously attempting to awaken our soul, but we can become lost or bogged down by the practical, the monetary necessities - or that which we perceive to be necessary, but which is in fact a chemical dependency, administered by the capitalist machinery to maximize its user base. We are not only presented with an endless array of things to buy but we are persuaded that our purpose is to buy them. The only way to defeat it is to reject its stranglehold. We won't find meaning in how much we accumulate, but by how little we need to. We experience meaning often as moments of transcendence. Those moments may be rare, but they can't be merely accidentally encountered amidst a barrage of media consumption as escapism, they must be sought after as the primary fabric from which our days are woven.