You are what you consume. And you, my friend, are consuming the foulest concoction of garbage history has ever seen. Oh? You think I’m not taking about YOU specifically? I am. What music are you listening to? What videos are in your feed? What are you reading? You’re not watching the news? Right?
I can hear you protesting right now. “Oh it’s not that bad, just a little bit of doomer content, a dash of corporate propaganda, and a little hint of things so sexualised they would kill a 5th century nun on the spot.” Yeah, you’re doing a terrible of job of fooling yourself, there’s not a chance you’re fooling me. I know because I fall victim to it all the time too. I try really hard to be conscious of what I’m taking in, but the algorithms don’t care. As soon as I’m in a bad mood my feed becomes the darkest place in the universe. It’s scary to see it reflected, but it’s also helpful now I’m conscious of what’s happening.
Today, I want to talk about your media diet.
So, what is a media diet? I’m not sure where I first heard the term, but it’s become near and dear to me. Think of all the media that you consume, both actively and passively. I’m talking about everything. Social media, TV, videos, content, music, news, advertising, all of it. That is your media diet.
I want you to take a moment to think about the sort of media you’re taking in on a day-to-day basis. What sort of content creators are you following? What sort of news are you watching? What sort of music are you listening to? All of this is having a meaningful impact on your quality of life. You may not realise it, but I promise that it does. This stuff lives in your mind, it festers and grows. Little tendrils drill into your thoughts and influence you. They influence how you think, how you feel, and how you act.
So, there’s a reason I feel so strongly about this topic. I’m highly susceptible to the influence of what I’m consuming. It’s a lesson I’ve learnt the hard way over the years, but I think it’s given me a valuable insight into how this all works.
Books
I first noticed it with the kinds of books I was reading. When I was younger I loved to read really dark and grim fiction. You wouldn’t guess it, but I was pretty dark and grim kid. Now, this is another chicken and egg scenario, but I can say with confidence that the dark media made everything darker. The turning point was me reading a very particular piece of fiction. It was called The Trash of the Count’s Family. It was a book about a guy reborn into the body of a scummy noble guy. The whole book, the main character is just really nice to people. He gets through most major conflicts by relying on the relationships he’s built by being a nice dude to the people he meets.
After reading this book, I noticed that I was being nicer to people and focusing more on fostering good relationships. Now, I was a young teen at this point and I didn’t think too hard about what was happening, but it got me on the path of noticing what sort of effect media was having on me. I also had a great English teacher around this time who went on a rant in class about music. He told everyone to consider the lyrics of their favourite songs and to see if they even had any proper meaning. It really got me thinking.
Social Media
Another big movement for me was COVID and social media. During lock down I was a very depressed individual. I missed my friends and I had very little to do. So, I spent 8 hours a day on social media. The routine was wake up, turn the PC on, open up Facebook, scroll for a few hours, get bored, then open up Instagram, scroll for a few hours, swap back. This was a proper doom loop. At some point I realised that this was killing my soul, so it had to stop. I deleted the apps and haven’t looked back since. Social media is an evil in its own right, but that’s a discussion best saved for another time.
Music
A difficult frontier I continue to face is music. I think this could be the real killer. I mentioned how I first starting thinking about this, the story with my teacher. Not to sound too much like a conservative housewife, but have you really stopped to listen what’s played on the radio these days? I’m telling you I do everything I can do avoid it. I won’t rant about the mind poison you’re likely listening to, but I will implore you to really listen to what they’re saying in the songs you listen to. Then you need to remember what it is you want from life, who you want to be. Are the artists you listen to reflective of this?
That’s far easier said than done, I get it. I still have songs in my playlist that are questionable. Just yesterday I finally decided to remove a few that were overly egregious. You don’t have to, but I know the impact they can have and I don’t want a bar of it.
Advertising
There is another force out there that’s much harder to combat. Books, social media, music, all of that you have more direct control over the consumption of, so it’s easier to cut out. How about advertising? Now that’s very hard to avoid. It’s literally everywhere. It’s on your phone, it’s on the walls, it’s on people’s clothes. It’s almost impossible to avoid. Billions of dollars are spent to make things that will attack your brain. You are not immune. The nerds that cook this stuff up are infinitely smarter than you or I. The only way to win is to not play. Install adblockers, right now. If you don’t have one, get one immediately. Don’t watch TV, it’s just ads anyway. I pay for things like YouTube premium because I hate ads so much. It ain’t cheap, but I’m on YouTube far too much to let my brain be assaulted by ads.
Bringing it in to Land
Okay, so to bring it all in to land: It’s not an easy path, but it is a rewarding one. The media around you will influence you, I’m not going to read stats to you but you know they’re out there. What you take in changes you. Now that I’ve brought this up, you have a choice. You can go back to not thinking and just consuming, letting outside forces dictate how you think, feel, and behave. Or, you can rise to the challenge and and seriously reckon with what you’re taking in. Cut out the garbage and replace it with things that will nourish you.
Now, I can’t force you to do that. So once again, it’s all up to you.
What are you going to do?