The Question for Active Engagement

Dear Younger Me,

Content is killing us.

I’m not talking about the adjective that describes a state of peaceful happiness.

I’m talking about the noun that names “information made available by a website or other electronic medium.”

In simple terms, content equals information.

So, information is killing us.

Not necessarily the information itself (although some of it is absolutely BRUTAL).

It’s the sheer volume of information being produced.

It seems like everyday another influencer gets big, another social media trend goes viral, and another news story breaks our hearts.

The scary part is, content isn’t going anywhere.

If anything, there’s only going to be more of it.

More creators will churn out more content informing more people about what they believe is necessary information they NEED to hear.

Ironically, this letter is also content.

This content may inspire you to make content of your own.

Meaning even more content is going out into the world.

And the cycle repeats over and over and over again.

Because of this cycle, we are entering the age of overwhelming information…

And it is going to be brutal.

But, younger me, there is a solution…

I call it “the question for active engagement.”

It only requires you to ask yourself one question.

A question that will transform the way to consume content.

The problem with all the content we consume is that we often do so passively.

And why wouldn’t you?

In a recent study by The Reuters Institute, social media and television (accounting for 74% of how people consume information) are the predominant mediums for information consumption.

Mediums that happen to be the easiest for passive content consumption.

How many times have you gotten caught “doom scrolling” or watching TV for hours without realizing?

We all have.

You’re brain turns off, unaware of the information overload until it is too late.

This is where the question comes in.

The question that will change how you consume content:

“What do I think about this.”

The key to this question?

Ask it right before you consume a new piece of content.

Shocked at how simple this is?

I was too.

But here is why it is such a beautiful question.

It forces you to change your posture of consuming content.

How?

You’ll either get so annoyed by constantly asking yourself the question that you will stop asking it (and continue down the path of overwhelming consumption) OR it will dramatically increase the time you spend consuming a single piece of content (and thus find yourself consuming dramatically less content).

The key point is this question will create a buffer with your content consumption.

Imagine how much slower you would scroll on social media if you stopped at each post to ask and answer this question.

If you consumed content for one hour, you’d consume far LESS content, but your understanding of the content would be far GREATER.

It sounds unrealistic, right? Who would pause the TV to process the topic on the news before moving on to the next.

Only a few.

But those few are the extraordinary ones. They’re the ones who can escape the overwhelming content cycle that is buries so many.

Those few will achieve:

• A deeper understanding of the content they consume.

• A manageable amount of content consumption.

• A departure from the cycle of overwhelming content creation.

Will you be one of those people?

I hope so,

Older You

P.S: What did you think of this newsletter? 🙂 

If you found value from it, do me a favor and forward it to 1 other person who may find it interesting. Who knows, it may dramatically change the way they view content.