Conflicts with Self

Being an anime-manga otaku is fun; you get to dive into fictional worlds and have many things to look forward to, such as new episodes or chapters, new series, the latest merchandise, and upcoming conventions. One of the biggest issues with being a big fan of anything in the pop culture department, aside from the amount of time and money poured into the hobby, is that all the merchandise and energy you put into it consumes a lot of natural resources.

When I look at all the plastic and paper packaging, character figurines, cards, manga, DVDs, clothes, accessories, plushies, key-chains, pencil boards, and ... (you get the picture), I think "gosh, this is a lot of stuff." Then I wonder if running out of oil would mean no more anime figurines, which I get the feeling it somehow will not. I wonder about how I could have had more classy and fabulous everyday clothing to wear that are not the regular T-shirt and jeans if I spent money on clothing instead of my hobby. I wonder about how much electricity I have used to read scanlations and watch episodes online. I wonder about how many trees and chemicals were used to make the vast number of comics. I wonder about how I could have spent more time with real life events.

Everyday I am conflicted about whether I should drop the fan bar by 90% to work on or get involved with real life issues like those portrayed in fictional anime and manga stories. Issues like government issues, environment degradation, resource depletion, drug abuse, social development, education, and debt. If I diverted all the time I spent on pop culture hobbies to real life problems since high school, I wonder if I would have contributed something greater to society by now.

..

It may be too late to prevent issues from getting more complex, but I suppose I can still get involved right now... after this manga chapter and paying off my debts somehow.