My tips for healthy media consumption
Like @Angus Hervey and others, I am wary of the way that both traditional and social media try to capture my attention by framing news in a way to make me angry.
Assuming that you agree with me about the problem, here are habits that I have cultivated to do something about it. Your circumstances may differ from mine, so you may not wish to adopt these. But maybe my list includes one or two that you could consider.
I watch zero cable news.
I don’t read Twitter.
I use Facebook only to keep up with people who I care about personally. I tell myself to never, never comment on or share political posts on Facebook.
On my blog, I do not comment on any story I come across for at least 48 hours. Often, this means that I do not comment at all, because many stories do not stay in the news cycle more than two days. I almost never publish any post immediately. Instead, I schedule posts several days ahead. I am trying to make sure that I engage system 2 (sober and reflective) rather than system 1 (emotional and instinctive).
I try to give priority to long-form reading: books, essays, and journal articles. I also give priority to my own writing. Still, I need to get better about limiting the time that I spend on short-term reading.
I believe that it is a good idea to keep all devices in airplane mode for a 24-hour period once a week. I have difficulty executing this one, particularly when I travel.
I spend at least an hour a day doing physical activity (for me, it’s walking or biking or working out in the basement) accompanied by nothing but my thoughts and daydreams.
My sleep-time ritual is to curl up with a physical book or journal.
I am impressed by your 48 hour delay period before commenting on the news. It gives your blog a very different flavor than many others on the internet
One of the related techniques that people on a “Maker’s Schedule” (vs. Manager’s Schedule as defined by a Paul Graham essay) like is the Pomodoro Technique. The key is to time and track your work in a way that forces continuous single-tasking and ultimately results in what Csíkszentmihályi calls “flow”. To achieve continuous single-tasking, you have to remove all distractions/interruptions and not work on anything that isn’t in your task list.
Enabling “Do Not Disturb” mode on your smartphone is a good way to remove interruptions, which came up in the comments before.
I’d add “don’t watch local news, either.”
A great list!
I was just thinking that a Sabbath, without any internet devices, would be good.
I do read Trump’s Twitter feed — it keep’s the hysterical news “about what he said” in better perspective, because he often didn’t say what the Dem media claim he said.
But I think an attraction of Twitter is, precisely, to join a conversation and have some feeling of immediate feedback.
On my blog, I do not comment on any story I come across for at least 48 hours.
This is one huge reason I like this blog, the topics are more important, and less urgent – they’re not “putting out fires”.
However, I’d also be very interested in Arnold interacting with comments as conversation, with Handle about the future rise of China, for instance.
The physical activity is very important. I’d also suggest some specific strength training exercises.