I have a confession to make: I’m a little bit of a documentary junkie. I just finished watching Food. Inc for the third time, and I intend to watch it another time… If not more.

Because time is limited, I have to select the documentaries I watch (and re-watch) very carefully; usually they have to do with topics that are dear to me, such as education, social justice and health. As a blogger, and as someone who meets and talks to many people, these documentaries are a steady source of information on which I can reflect on the social reality of the world that I live in, the very world I am contributing to make a better one. They are also a source of inspiration for many a post.

Take Food Inc, for example; it’s simple yet powerful message, that each one of us can vote three times a day on what we want to be served to us in our plates, is extremely empowering.

I do have to be careful though, because there is only so much documentary-watching I can take before I get depressed. Going back to, yes, Food Inc, it’s also rather depressing when one realises just how big the problem is. It makes me want to grab an overly processed and unhealthy candy bar and munch my anxiety away.

I have come to realise that one way to keep positive is in numbers; watching documentaries with friends or, at the very least, calling a couple up after watching one to discuss said documentaries contents is conducive to keeping one’s spirits up. And, of course, taking action immediately, be it with a very small step, is also essential.

I think I’m going to watch either Prom Night in Mississippi or Waiting for Superman next. I know both are again going to be a source of empowerment on the one hand and a cause for despair on the other. But I do hope to mitigate the latter in favour of the former by taking advantage of my fellow nerdy friends.

Thank God for nerds.

Originally published on Sahar’s Blog on 18 March 2011.