Consumption vs. Creation

It occurred to me the other day that a great deal of my time is spent in 'consumptive' activity: reading blogs, newspapers, books, watching TV, movies, YouTube, listening to podcasts. Apart from what I do at work, virtually none of my time is spent on creating things: the occasional blog entry and now and then some photographs -- that's about it. It seems to me that this is a little out of whack. It's a lot more fun to create than to consume, so creativity should be something that's more important to me. So, why don't I spend more time on it?

One reason, clearly, is the feeling of futility. Let's say I wanted to write or do photography as a creative outlet. I'm not the sort of person who would be content to take a great photograph and then never show it to someone -- I'd need an audience... someone to 'consume' my creative output. But I'm also the sort of person who hates to be the center of attention and don't like to draw attention to myself. So I'm a little bit stuck, it seems futile to work hard creating something, if I'm not going to share it with anyone.

Or maybe I get enough satisfaction from my creative output at work. Of course, it's not quite so personal an effort as writing or photography is, but it does challenge me.