The most satisfying, convenient, easily digestible thing will be the most appealing in any given moment. But cramming something into every free, boring, or uncomfortable moment (a.k.a., overconsumption) can further increase your appetite.
Michael Pollan wrote that “you are what you eat eats too.” This quote was meant for the quality of the food you’re eating, but it also applies to ideas. The people you listen to are shaped by the people and groups they listen to.
So be judicious about what you consume. Even passive and inadvertent exposure, like what you overhear, scroll past, or absorb in the background, is a form of consumption. Each thing you let in takes up space, has a chance to dump a tiny wheelbarrow of contagion into you.
Before consuming, ask: Is this relevant or valuable? Will this matter to me tomorrow, next week, next year? Gossip, sensational news, and personal dramas can be very enticing but often lack any real benefit. Avoid people and groups that subsist on this stuff.
On the contrary, if you’re intrigued by what someone is saying, look upstream. See where they got it.
“The more time you spend immersed in the shitstream of TV/internet/social media the stupider and more boring and just like everyone else you will be.”
Tim Kreider