Things We Consume & Things that Consume Us

Whoever dubbed it the Information Age was a marketing genius.

Who can by stillness, little by little

Make what is troubled grow clear?

— Lao Tzu

Whoever dubbed it the Information Age was a marketing genius. 

Or maybe they truly had no idea what havoc Moore's Law and fiber optics would wreak on our brains.

Infinite noise teems across digital channels 24/7/365 and signal has never been more diluted.

Maybe, we ought to redub this era, The Noise Age.

Things We Consume & Things that Consume Us

The things we read, hear and see occupy our minds. 

They affect what we think, how we feel and what we say and do. They help shape how we experience ourselves, those around us and the world.

If we consume noise all day, our worlds fill with falsehood, negativity and clutter.

Nutrition is a good analog for this. Food serves as nourishment and fuel for our bodies.

If we eat nutrient-dense foods, our bodies purr like a BMW or whichever cars purr.

If we eat nutrient-poor foods, our bodies sputter. We get tired and bloated. We’re more prone to illnesses, weight gain and fatigue.

It is the same thing with the stuff our minds consume, the stuff we read, hear and see. If we consume high octane information and art, our brains purr and we have the stillness to experience the present — to make what is troubled grow clear.

But if we fill our eyes and ears with noise, our minds sputter.

Atomic Noise Delivery Systems

Large processed food conglomerates have made it more difficult for Americans to eat well. 

They employ food scientists who concoct addictive garbage designed to make us crave more. 

They spend millions lobbying Washington and millions more marketing to make us think this garbage is somehow cool and healthy.

Digital media are the brain noise equivalent to the processed food conglomerates. 

This includes everything from social media to streaming cos like Netflix to more traditional outlets like NYT, NYP, CNN, Fox News etc.

Social media is especially pernicious because of the effects that Likes, Replies, and Retweets have on our addiction brain centers.

If we do live in The Noise Age, social media are the atomic noise delivery systems.

Second Order Gains of Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) refers to eating within a time window and limiting calorie intake for extended periods ranging from 12-16 hours to a few days. 

If you subscribe to this newsletter, you probably already know something about it. If you’re unfamiliar, I wrote much more about it here.

IF has gained popularity as evidence accumulates regarding its effectiveness in promoting weight loss, type 2 diabetes management, and cellular rejuvenation (autophagy). 

There are potential second order gains from IF that are rarely discussed. IF provides a means to develop temporal self-control strategies that can be generalized across other domains of functioning.

If we can control when we eat, we can generalize this skill to other things.

Digital Intermittent Fasting

We can apply principles of IF to digital media use in general and social media use specifically as a way to manage the time we spend consuming and being consumed by noise.

The weekend social media fast is a good place to start. 

On Fridays at 5 PM, we stop using social apps and discontinue until we wake up Sunday morning. If we need to, we can put the phone in a drawer.

If we have trouble with the weekend phone fast, it suggests how much we need it.

Next, we can progress our digital IF schedules by fasting during evenings – say from 8 PM to the time we wake up the next morning. This might also improve sleep quality.

We can use that same drawer, activate airplane mode or just turn the darn thing off.

If we can establish these limits habitually, it might help free up more time and mind space for clarity and other stuff.