As I write this I’ve spent (I think) way too much time sifting, shifting, and flipping through too many media sources. From email newsletters and RSS to YouTube and podcasts, I feel like I’m trying to keep up with something that’s been mandated. A constant feeling of keeping up.
I don’t really “do” social media but this must be how it feels. On that note, I thought I was doing my brain and attention some good by not partaking in the doldrums and drooling hysteria of social media. No, my friend I’ll be different. I’ll focus on more high-end content sources: said newsletters, highbrow podcasts, and only the best of shallow entertainment on YouTube. Heck, I’ve even curated a nice list on the WordPress Reader.
Too much is too much
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not sitting in my basement scrolling mindlessly for hours. Quite the contrary. I think I’m in the minority as someone who isn’t attached to their device like an extension of my arm and I don’t have a basement. But I do feel an increasing pull to keep up. The feeling of keeping up with podcast episodes, YouTube channels, and all of the newsletters I’ve subscribed to over the years. This alluring and somehow requirement to give my collection of chosen media sources their due attention. If not I’ll fall behind and forever be the owner of an empty brain void of any and all knowledge.
But too much is just too much and I feel both the burden and overall emptiness it provides. No matter the source, it will take a toll and make you go crazy. Your head will start to feel artificial, and worn out, and develop a grey sludge of numbness that will have you questioning your intentions. You’ll become exhausted from doing nothing.
What are your intentions?
I need to take a step back. Much like the exercise in Cal Newport’s book Digital Minimalism, I need a detox. A period of time away, to reevaluate my intentions with everything I consume, and ruthlessly scrutinize.
It will need to be a strict period of time where the effects have time to wear off. I’ll also need some time to think about how I will fill the newly freed time–to avoid simply filling the voids with more useless fodder.
The goal is to be more intentional with media consumption. To set a schedule for digital media. To read more physical books, listen to more music, and take on more leisure activities in the physical world. To look back a little at how life was before everything was digital.
It’s time to stop, breathe, curate, and step with purpose.
What about you? Are you ready for a break from too much media? From the constant firehose of information?
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Brad Borland 
I know where you’re at, Brad. I’ve been there more than once. Like you, I unplug and slow down, detox, go minimal. Give your brain time to heal. You know what to do. “Touch grass” and all that. I most often feel it with my RSS reader. It’s a convenient way to not miss anything and check news with ease. But we are not machines meant to devour input like Johnny 5 in Short Circuit. RSS readers tend to turn people into headline reading robots. It catches up with me at times, then I must step back and remind myself I won’t really miss any news.
The next step is when you resume some digital consumption habits. Resume one thing at a time, go slow, see how you can ease back in. And set a limit from the start and determine to not cross it. It’s too easy to creep up the overwhelm staircase.
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Great points! And awesome old movie reference! Information creep is putting it mildly. I have a friend who reads the paper on the weekends, nothing else media wise. No email newsletters, social media, news apps… Just the paper. And then he does the crossword. That sounds nice in so many ways.
Me? Way too much crap. Podcasts, YouTube channels, newsletters. But thankfully no checking social feeds.
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Oh, I failed to mention that I think your book reading idea was spot on. It’s a way to go deep and slow on something and, I think, would be a good way to rewire and detox. My two cents.
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