{"id":17272,"date":"2026-09-20T11:47:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T18:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=17272"},"modified":"2026-09-15T12:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:08:16","slug":"weve-turned-living-life-into-content-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=17272","title":{"rendered":"We’ve turned living life into content generation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

We’ve worked ourselves to the point we are conditioned to turn every activity in our lives into content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are now passive consumers of everything, even human interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet getting everything through a screen is isolating and unfulfilling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s why it needs to be addictive, because it can’t compete with the human experience it is trying to replace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are, whether we like to admit it or not, social creatures who need to interact with other people. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If there is one spiritual illness for our times, it is the isolation and wasting of our lives online. I say this as a person that spent my entire life working on the latest computer technology. Is this new? No, we’ve been replacing the deepest desires for love of our hearts as long as man has been alive. Money, power, conquest, ownership have always been there. But now, it’s entertainment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at the tracking in your iPhone to see the number of hours per week you spend on your phone\/tablet\/devices. We justify it as harmless fun, keeping up with the news, and even casual learning. But imagine what you could have done with 4, 8, or even 12 more hours you spent on your phones each week? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to find out? Uninstall your social media apps from your phone. Take ‘screenless’ Fridays in which you don’t watch tv, use your phone for browsing in idle moments, or consume media or books on a tablet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did this 3 years ago and noticed several remarkable trends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. My mental health improved dramatically. I originally got off apps during Covid when outrage replaced sex as the hallmark clickbait. I disconnected myself from the pipe – and learned how exploring my inner wellbeing and connection with God was far more fulfilling than anything I got out there.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. I got bored. Without the time suck, I spent time puttering around my house and neighborhood. I started going more and more to daily mass. I picked up books I hadn’t looked at in years nor finished. I started, and re-started, projects I hadn’t worked on in years. I eventually won some competitions with the little ideas I worked on.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. My general health improved. I got bored. I went for a walk. Soon it was every day. I met several wonderful people and several interesting cats that I now pet every time I go by.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. I got involved. I started volunteering for causes I believed in at my Church. I made connections with real people and re-connected with my spiritual life. I spent more time talking with God.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. I got social. I started going to morning daily mass. All of a sudden I was talking to people more and more every day and connecting with the lives of others. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. I got happier.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Challenge yourself to go on a hike, start volunteering, or get involved in a real life hobby. Go GET BORED. You’ll be amazed the people you’ll start meeting when you are bored and start looking out there instead of in a box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We’ve worked ourselves to the point we are conditioned to turn every activity in our lives into content. We are now passive consumers of everything, even human interaction. Yet getting everything through a screen is isolating and unfulfilling. That’s why it needs to be addictive, because it can’t compete with the human experience it is trying to replace. We are, whether we like to admit it or not, social creatures who need to interact with other people. If there is…<\/p>\n

    Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4WECr-4uA","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17275,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17272\/revisions\/17275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}