Reflecting on Reviews
Earlier this year, I set myself a goal – more intentional relationships with the media I consume. This is a shift away from being a consumer and towards someone who actively engages with the books, music and movies that I go through.
My initial model for that was reviews – inspired by the Goodreads and Letterboxd accounts I used to use to keep track of my books and movies. On these sites, you play critic, giving your opinion on the art and a rating, but often fall short of seeing what you took away from the experience. But because that is the model I’m used to, it’s the one I’ve tried replicating over the last six months.
But in doing this I don’t think I’ve engaged much more than I usually do. So how do I engage more with media?
I think the answer is a subtle shift in my records: moving away from reviews and towards takeaways. And it can be the takeaway is that I found something good, or bad, but more importantly it doesn’t force me to reduce my thoughts and ideas around a thing to just a little score out of 5. Takeaways lets me bring in so much more: What does it make me think about? How does it change my worldview? What is inspiring about it?
It also links back to the goal of this blog – expression and public learning. I don’t care for being a critic, so there is no point giving out stars. I want to show how I am interacting with everything, and more importantly, what I am learning.