Social Media

Becoming a creator instead of consumer

I’ve spent 8 years consuming 500 hours of podcasts annually. Now, I’m fighting the 'consumption monster' to finally become a real writer.

Ufuk Safak

29 Mar 2026 — 5 min read

Photo by Patrick Fore / Unsplash

When you read the headline, you might imagine reading about anthropologic story of humankind. But this time, it is just my personal story.

There is nothing to learn in this article! It means it is actually just "blog"

I’m not sure if it’s the same for everyone, but we’ve become quite hesitant to share anything on social media. Years ago, I used to share what was on my mind (either with a touch of humor or more seriously) on platforms like Twitter. Over the years, people with massive followings took over the scene, and now we feel reluctant to post even on Instagram. On Instagram anyway, we mostly just witness the lives of influencers and people with high follower counts.

I am actually still very social in internet, but only in closed groups. And I am very active in Instagram by sharing memes to different friends, literally everyday. That seems fine for social media companies! They don't need us to keep sharing, they need us to keep staring at screen

When it comes to normal social media usage, I only have 2 platforms still offer that "old-school" feel:

Goodreads: Personally, I only have 10 friends there, and I really enjoy seeing which books they’ve read or added to their lists from time to time. If you’re a Goodreads user and consider me a friend, please add me.
Linkedin: At least there, I mostly see posts from people I actually follow, and there is a certain level of seriousness. Of course, LinkedIn can be a "shitshow" in its own way, but it is ten times better than Twitter.
And Substack seems nice as well. But I don't have any real life friends there to follow.

There are a lot to say about this topic, but I don't want to feed my ADHD brain today 😄

My attempt to be visible again

I have a goal to become visible on social media again. But honestly, there is an undefinable force constantly pulling me back. I tell myself I’ll post on LinkedIn, but I don't. I thought I’d start a website, which I did, but I can’t seem to write many blog posts there either. I set up this site and managed to gather about 15 to 20 posts, but while my goal is at least one post per week, I’m barely sharing one a month.

Actually, I even tried to occasionaly record a video and publish it to youtube. But I mean to be more serious and real content creator. While writing, I am surely more professional 😄 But not consistent!

Here is my bluesky, substack, mastodon and twitter account. How pathetic they are 😄

To get a bit personal, the problem is that I am a consumption addict. I have bad habits like doomscrolling, of course, but I’ve eventually turned myself into someone who consumes high-quality, useful content well above the average. I read or listen to about 50 books a year and probably listen to 300 to 500 hours of podcasts annually. I have been listening to podcast with this pace for about 8 years as of 2026! And Youtube, of course!

I’ve reached a breaking point. I’ve moved past the "old Ufuk" who felt ignorant. Thankfully, I still feel ignorant today; five years from now, I’ll look back at my current self and think about how little I knew. It is exactly how I feel about my past self now.

Then again, I might have missed the social media era entirely. In this new age where everything is AI-generated, we’ll see how I realize this childhood dream (writing). I am trying to write original blogs using my own expressions as much as possible, but let’s be honest: using AI for research saves a lot of time, and it can quickly summarize a topic for you. However, I don’t take the easy way out by letting it handle the entire flow of the writing. If I did, you’d realize it because I would be posting every single day.

Speaking of every day, I have this psychological hurdle: I wake up believing I can post a blog every day. More accurately, I usually go to bed with that belief. As some of you know, I’m currently unemployed. After dropping my son off at school, I’m home all day. I spend most of that time watching tutorials, useful YouTube content, reading books, or listening to podcasts. But with every new thing I learn, I get excited and think that I should write a blog about it. I need to overcome this mindset somehow.

I take notes on everything. So many things have accumulated over the years that I feel I should have done. I’m now being crushed under the weight of that list. To give you an idea of my headspace:

My #note/question pages in my PKM (Personal Knowledge Management).
My #note/blog pages.

And my general PKM graph. I’ve been collecting notes for about 10 years, first on Notion and now on Obsidian:

To wrap it up, in the name of "self-improvement," I’ve turned into a consumption monster. I don't think I'm consuming harmful things, but consuming this much content without producing anything feels meaningless.

I want to pursue my childhood dream, which is something I loved doing even as a kid, more professionally and more frequently: Writing. I would be very happy if you could support me on this journey by subscribing to this free mailing list.

And I have a lot to do! I just need to ignite my inner soul to start creating again!

By the way, as life goes up and down, there is one absolute truth about my brain: It is most creative brain you can ever find 😄

NOTE: My other childhood habit was designing.