Watch your I-diet
By: Michael Beiter
Your diet is not just what you eat. It’s what you watch, listen to, and read.
There’s no secret that we live in an age of information. The secret is: most of it is useless nonsense.
Think of your locus of control - the things you have direct control over. Then think about your information diet - the media you consume, movies you watch, music and podcasts you listen to, as well as the books and news you read.
How much of the information you consume is concerning something you have no control over?
I don’t know about you, but I answer most of it.
Right now, there is a war going on between Russia and Ukraine. The whole situation is so far outside of my locus of control I might as well not even know about it. But it’s the cover story every time I open a news feed.
The Covid-19 pandemic is winding down. It led the headlines and took up space on every podcast I have listened to for the last two years. I decided what to do in response early, and since then, all the death tolls, closings, findings, etc., mean shit all to me. Not because they’re unnecessary, but because there’s nothing I can do about them. So I chose not to give them space in my mind.
We would all be better off if we cleaned up our information diet as much as our food one.
Greg McKeown wrote in his Essentialism: “ It is freeing to realize the vast triviality of almost everything.” Most information is trivial and doesn’t deserve our energy.
Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed, I check and find I’ve been reading too many headlines and consuming too much YouTube. In such instances, my podcast time is usually up, and I’ve been watching too much T.V.
When I feel my best, I listen to music with no words, read books I enjoy, and disconnect from information that doesn’t concern me.
A good bit of advice I picked up from someone said if I ever read or watch the news, it should only be the local stuff because it does concern me, and I may have some ability to control the outcomes.
Geopolitics, international affairs, and economics are the fast food and candy of information diets. Ditch them for local news, classical music, and less violent, emotional, explicit shows.
