hi I'm Jen Webb and I quit my engineering job to start a business designing websites and making art. I post a video every other week (sometimes more) about web design, productivity, and also vlogs showing what life is like for me as a freelancer 🙂 Follow along if you're interested and also let me know in the comments if you're on a similar self-employed/freelance journey, I'd love to hear your story too 💕
i'd love to challenge myself to a week without consuming content before i go back to school in the fall! ty for a refreshing watch on this topic, i'm glad to see a video tackling content overconsumption instead of just screentime and smartphones. it's definitely changed my perspective on the whole issue :)
For people who have any long term health issues I'd highly recommend doing something like this even for just one day. It's really easy to disassociate and be disconnected from your needs and get too used to just living in pain when you have things you can do to help it. If you are already good at being self aware like that though take the screen time you need to make the time pass easier and the pain more bearable. I hope you all have a good day and can find some peace ❤✨
I don’t use social media but I do consume RU-vid and audiobooks and podcasts. I do RU-vid scrolling fasts but i personally don’t think there is anything wrong with audiobooks and podcasts. I suffer from chronic pain and chronic migraines so physically reading is hard with blurred vision. So lots of portions of my day is resting so I listen to a book etc. But every evening I put my phone away it auto sets for 2 hours before bed time. I will sit and watch my fish in the tank and pray. Or meditate and stretch. I live a slow, gentle life so it’s quite boring for most but it’s how I have to live so I’m ok with it! ❤ you did great. Very cool to follow along on this fast. 16:43 I have a TBI so I lost my sense of smell & taste total permanent loss over 6 years ago. Along with other sensory issues. so you are making me think that maybe due to those losses of those senses, that I try to fill the stimulation or gap of stimulation I would get from those senses with other things and that might not always be positive! Hmm 🧐
I love content like this of challenges with clips from DURING the challenge! So many challenge videos are just "in conclusion" type things, and I always find myself wishing I could see the process. I love this!
I can see why people would do just the "in conclusion" type videos, because that would have been soo much easier to film and edit haha 😅 but I agree, it's much more interesting to see things unfolding in real time. thanks for watching ! 😊
this was super interesting! I agree with a lot of the others below - the constant content consuming is overloading and balance is key. silence can be so beneficial, but too much of it can feel dreadful. do you think you'd ever do something like this again?
yeah definitely! I can see myself doing it as like a reset maybe twice a year or something. Since I just finished the challenge I am still very mindful of when I'm consuming content, but I can see how over time I could start to lose the balance again. Also definitely want to try to incorporate more screen-free days, maybe one day per month. do you think you'd ever try it??
Sometimes I find myself feeling really tired. I figured out it's because of all the information I am consuming. We have more information now than people used to have in a lifetime! It's too much to handle and process. If I want to watch something on You Tube, I'll focus on that instead of say, checking my phone and e-mail at the same time.
The most valuable thing I get from this video is that what's damaging me is not my phone, my computer or screen time in general, it's the excess of content consuming.
yes! exactly my point. although I guess there are some negatives to the actual screens too, in terms of strain on our eyes 😅 but we can use screens to draw, write, make music, soo many possibilities. Screens are not the enemy, I don't even think content is the enemy. It's the attachment to a constant stream of content, the inability to be alone with our thoughts without something playing in the background - that's what I feel is the issue for many of us (myself included)
@@jenwebbcreates well I work with a computer 40 hours a week, so believe me, I don't want to reach out for it after that, I don't even hava a game console, all my hobbies can be done without my phone but I feel extremely uncomfortable while being in silence, so there's always a show or video streaming the background
The intent was to stop consuming all content for a week, to clear my mind and let me actually think my own thoughts lol. I forgot to mention it while filming, but this challenge was inspired by a "Reading Deprivation" exercise from the book The Artist's Way. The aim of the original exercise was to take away all content that other people created in order to give you space to maybe create yourself. I think I could have explained this better in the video, but I definitely didn't mean for this to be a denouncement of all content. In fact coming out of the media fast week I felt inspired to spend more time intentionally consuming content, like sitting down to read a book, vs. mindlessly scrolling or passively consuming content while I do some other activity.
Beautiful poem. Thanks for including the story of the helpful guy. I enjoy screen-free Saturdays, including a mid-day struggle that leads to a better day by getting through it. Books, walks, games, learning to juggle or tie knots. There's so much to do. :-)
I am inspired by this! I love the idea of screen-free Saturdays. not sure I could do it every Saturday, but I definitely want to incorporate more screen free days 😊
ha! did you see it in the video? I can't play the guitar 🥲 I've been holding on to it thinking that one day I would learn, but now it's by my front door because I'm finally planning on getting rid of it lol. that would have actually been a good activity to do during this week haha
I think your challenge is neat. It shows how much we are constantly consuming content. The poem you shared is touching! I will do this challenge. Thanks for the inspiration!! I am so glad RU-vid recommended your video in my feed. Happy creating!!👍❤️
Never consume content. Instead, read a book, listen to music, watch a movie, listen to an interesting lecture. I cut content out my life years ago and it's great.
@@gladiatorinsweats think of it this way: A neo Nazi video and a video about fostering puppies are both equally content "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned"
Hello! This is very helpful for a beginner! I'd like to dive into how you created the background images and used them on Squarespace? Was this also on Figma or Illustrator?
omg I really love all the rules but if I were to do this challenge myself, I'd let book reading be a part of the list of activities I want to do and I'd avoid book pdfs just to make sure my screen time is limited
This was a very inspiring video! i am currently trying to stay off social media (instagram) and it has been extremely difficult. this video really just opened my eyes even more to how attached we are to our screens and how we should start doing things without our phones. my spanish teacher told us (my junior year of high school) that she hated her phone and only had it because that’s the way to connect nowadays and that before, people survived without it so we can to and that stays with me and just this video is definitely gonna stay with me to. Keep making great content !!!
so true! I didn't have my own phone for most of high school which tells you how old I am 😅 I had to share a phone with my mom and it was one of those old nokia phones with no touchscreen or internet.. I can't even remember what it was like to live like that haha. it's crazy how much things have changed and how we are all so hooked on our screens now! I'm so glad this video was inspiring to you! 😊💕
I think I’d like to do this at some point, but there’s no way I could stop reading books I think there’s a line between content made to be consumed and art made to be enjoyed and for the love of art. I’d say books fall into the latter category
I agree! I wanted to read so bad during this week 🥲 I forgot to mention it while filming, but this challenge was inspired by a "Reading Deprivation" exercise from the book The Artist's Way. The aim of the original exercise was to take away all content that other people created in order to give you space to feel inspired to create more yourself. It's just for a week, not meant to be implemented forever. I agree that books are a more elevated type of content than, say, scrolling tiktok 😆 I think I could have explained this better in the video, but I didn't mean for this to be a denouncement of all content. and in fact coming out of the media fast week I felt inspired to spend more time intentionally consuming content, like sitting down to read a book, vs. mindlessly scrolling or passively consuming content while I do some other activity.
yes I did feel lonely the first full day especially. but I was lucky to have a lot of in-person social interaction during this week. without the content to keep us company maybe we can be more motivated to go out into the world and feel less lonely that way 🙂 but also learning how to be alone without the distractions is tough and also so important!
omg i don't think i could go on a walk / run without any form of media haha, but this is super important! I try to get through my mornings without any media because I consume a lottt of content daily (from work to personal) so it's nice to have noise-free mornings
Omg, I've been wanting to do this for a while now.. I'm so dependence with content & my inability so sit in silence is out of control, while being so overwhelmed all the time.. Thanks for sharing your experience, it's very inspiring <3
The way I have been waiting for this one!! I can’t believe how incredibly beautiful the poem was… and the fact that your mom reconnected with her friend is just perfection. You really are inspiring me to take this media-free challenge. It’s been a long time since I’ve truly disconnected 😅
right!! I love that the making of this video rekindled a friendship 🥹 and you should totally do it! it was hard, it felt like it took forever to finish, but it was so necessary 💛
This is a wonderfully informative video, thanks so much Jen :) Btw, could you inform me how much would you generally charge for building something like this for your clients? Also, how much did you used to charge for building "brochure" type websites, when you were a beginner??
I'm glad you liked it! I currently charge clients based on the complexity of the project, between $2,000-$4,000, although I think that's too low and I'm thinking of raising my prices. when I started I was doing mostly non-profit websites, and I didn't have confidence in my abilities yet so I was wayy undercharging.
