The Information Diet

I haven't read the book, but the descriptions of it strike a chord with me. Not because it's creating guilt that wasn't there before but just by expressing a vague feeling of compulsiveness, an addiction to information that isn't rewarding but enervating and overwhelming. About 6 months ago I consciously started to avoid 24 hours cable news channels and "political gossip" websites (I try to stay abreast on actual, you know, news but that's hard to find for all the noise.) It's made a huge difference in my mental well being but I'm still on the internet too much, still compulsively checking twitter (and yes, ILX) and things like that every moment that I'm not actively doing something else (write a paragraph--check twitter--write another paragraph, etc). It's not harming my life in any measurable way but I'm still dissatisfied with it because I don't associate happiness and well-being with that kind of compulsive behavior.

So I'm curious: How do you determine what is or isn't information [i.e., relevant] to you? Do you strive to limit your information intake? What kind of strategies or rules do you have?

I do we think we are on the verge of a culture of "control technologies" for controlling personal information flow the same way we've developed nutritional diets to control what we eat in the face of abundance. But the idea of that seems a long way off (for now) and I think we're in the wilderness of unchecked information consumption right now.

I hope this doesn't come off as concern trolling. I don't think society is crumbling from too much information or anything, but I do feel like it has an effect on the quality of our lives.

I read the book. It's decent. I'll try to get back to this later today when I have time. I've definitely changed how I approach different media.

I am on the verge of unsubbing from a bunch of political blog feeds that I've monitoring daily for like 10 years because I've come to feel like they don't have enough content day-by-day to warrant that kind of daily attention. I don't check all the feeds each day but then they pile up & I have a vague feeling like "uggh I've fallen behind". It's an empty kind of worry because the content is so rarely interesting or significant. But it's a worry nonetheless. Like I want to stay "informed" but I don't really know how to do it anymore, nor really what it is to be informed.

idk I consume a lot of 'information' every day and I enjoy doing it, maybe it borders on compulsive at times but there are worse things to be compulsive about. I'm not sure the total quantity would be much different if I were one of those old school dudes who read the nyt and wsj front to back in the morning, nobody really questioned that behavior as unhealthy

kinda just barfing in public here, and i'm sure this is something that's already been raised and shot down repeatedly, but it seems like one of the consequences of information access overload is that a person with a deep well of specialized knowledge is even more valuable than before. it seems like specialization is more of a choice than it was in the past. people were more limited in the past by access to people and institutions that could provide the specialized knowledge, whereas now it's much more tempting for some people to spend their time learning a little about something new, rather than a little bit more about something they already knew. as a result, people who know a ton about a single issue end up standing out against a crowd of people whose expertise is a mile wide and an inch deep (like me, for example).

/barf

people whose expertise is a mile wide and an inch deep (like me, for example).

i know a ton of people like this, they're like walking smartphones. pretty valuable people to have around if you're a sports fan (because they already know which baseball teams won and who's getting traded), but kind of obnoxious in regular conversation

not saying you're an obnoxious person. just if the "jack of all trades/master of none" trait crosses with "everyone's gotta know what I think about everything" one

eh 'master' is really dependent on who you're talking to

iatee -- that's a very good point. and let me say that i dont want to suggest there's a prescription here that everyone needs to follow.

for myself, i have a significant bias towards certain (say, Buddhist) ideas of "mindfulness"--so it's especially galling to me that, thanks to my iphone, no matter where I am and what I am doing half of my mind is always on "the internet." but that's my problem because it's failing to meet an expectation i have set for myself.

Part of what got me to start avoiding the "news" more is this dawning sense that it was emotionally manipulative. Over and over again what's happening is filtered through the idea of "how is this supposed to outrage me." Obviously, sometimes that's appropriate, and maybe the news SHOULD be doing it's damnedest to outrage us. at the same time I'm kinda intrigued by Bernard Stiegler's idea that our capacity for attention is finite, and can be exhausted, and what's being served by that "outrage" isn't necessarily change for the better but a more rigid self-identification. (To listen to Rush Limbaugh, say, is to hear a 100 different ways why Liberals should repulse you.)

ZS - it's funny part of what got me thinking about this was the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" (which is mediocre but fun to see anyway). I came away from it with a tremendous respect for Jiro (clearly of a far distant generation from mine) because he could obviously give a fuck about anything except sushi and making it as perfect as he could. His life and focus was very narrow, maybe more narrow than I'd ever want for myself, but there's something about that kind of life that appeals to me nonetheless.

well there are problems w/ clumping all forms of 'information' in one big category. if you go to church every week you are 'consuming information' of a sort that most likely pushes you towards a form of rigid self-identification.

the ability to use the internet to tailor your sources of information to your personal tastes is sorta a different subject than information overload.

I like taking in a lot of information. My sources will vary over time. I may add 5 sources and drop 2 out of my rotation. At no point do I feel like I am overloaded.

ZS - it's funny part of what got me thinking about this was the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" (which is mediocre but fun to see anyway). I came away from it with a tremendous respect for Jiro (clearly of a far distant generation from mine) because he could obviously give a fuck about anything except sushi and making it as perfect as he could. His life and focus was very narrow, maybe more narrow than I'd ever want for myself, but there's something about that kind of life that appeals to me nonetheless.

this is why I would up respecting the guys from King of Kong and Chasing Ghosts, as even if they are freaks or very weird dudes, they're still focused on being the world's best at SOMETHING, which requires more time, dedication, and focus than I'll ever have.

the ability to use the internet to tailor your sources of information to your personal tastes is sorta a different subject than information overload.

I actually think these are related though. We consumer more and more information in the service of filtering it through a more and more selective world-view (if that makes any sense).

One of my New Years resolutions was to stop reading the news. I've read the news habitually ever since I've had a desk job, but it occured to me recently that most of the information I was spending time on and digesting had little to do with my personal passions and interests, other than being a person who reads the news. I felt I could be spending my time in more worthwhile ways. I was successful for a while, but have fallen back into the habit of reading nytimes.com, cnn.com, etc.

I'm going to keep working on it though, and expand it to other information sources. A notable one is watching tv with my son - I'll be sitting there just absorbing it and all of the sudden realize "Oh, I'm watching Johnny Test again. Johnny Test has nothing to do with me or my interests, but I have a working knowledge of the Johnny Test universe. I need to fix this."

I actually think these are related though. We consumer more and more information in the service of filtering it through a more and more selective world-view (if that makes any sense).

again I think a lot of this has to do w/ how we are defining 'information' - if I read political blogs for 2 hours instead of watching a 2 hour movie, I don't really have 'more information', I just have a different type of information

true. smy working definition of information somewhat like Gregory Bateson's idea of it: "a difference that makes a difference." So, in some respect it means you're taking something as relevant to you, to your life or purposes.

There are entire universes of information (say, kid's tv shows) that don't scan as information to me. It floats on past me. My problem though is that I'm taking too many things, or too much of something, as somehow relevant. This is what creates the compulsiveness i think.

I mean yeah I'm sure there are some people who are addicted to politico and should see help but many of america's problems come from the fact that as a whole, we have a populace that isn't particularly curious or well-informed and I think in that context more and better 'information' is generally 'a good thing'.

Yeah i agree with that.

my receptive orientation towards a lot of easily consumable "neutral" news (national papers, national tv news, and especially local tv news and local newspapers) is pretty negative. i'm like allergic to the whole presentation. it doesn't enlighten me. it always goes for manipulation and reification, and i'm easily manipulated. i don't need some dumb article to get freaked out about, i have enough of that already.

i don't think more information is inherently a good thing. i don't think it's a bad thing either. i haven't read that book at all but it's an interesting concept. my body overreacts to just about everything i consume, so i consciously try to eat things that are nutrient-rich. and i try to eat less, because i need like *space* to *really process it*. i definitely function better that way. same with information! i have to do a lot of work beforehand to find/"make" the information that will be good for me or help me progress, and i need time to really process that shit. BUT it's really easy for me to just compulsively consume information anyway because at its basic level it's pleasurable, like eating. it's easy to rationalize that you're learning something and i'm sure lots of people do learn lots of things that way, i guess it's the feeling that i'm not nearly learning to the extent that i could about the ideas that animate my existence that leaves me feeling hungry and feeds the cycle instead.

i think that the idea that we already know everything we need to know is what allows good change to happen. i'd like to try to frame information within that idea, as a building block for it, rather than an external cause of change.

it's really easy for me to just compulsively consume information anyway because at its basic level it's pleasurable, like eating

i definitely agree. im mystified as to why it's pleasurable though. like, a twitter update shouldn't trigger a stimulus-reward relationship and yet it does. I wonder if those more prone to anxiety are perhaps more susceptible to identify more things as "information" and thus important for survival/whatever and that's why the reward kicks in.

i also always find it interesting when one stimulus-reward relationship conflicts with another. say i am eating cookies they keep tasting good, and i keep eating them, past the point of feeling a little sick. ("there's always room for dessert.")

so stomach says: "stop"
brain says: "moar cookie"

haha otm. that explains the compulsive part of it. i also get pleasure from engaging with text, seeing how it's made or playing with it. i like reading, just like, as an activity you can have fun with. i don't think that part is necessarily connected to anxiety. xp

honestly i've never been able to stop being compulsive but i think realizing that it's part of who i am and it's really not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things has helped me be less compulsive as a side effect. BUDDHISM LOL

I think there's too much of a deal made about the difference between the different forms of reading tho, like I know that studies show that the high density info-overload isn't retained as well as 'slow reading' but I think there is something to be said about the fact that we have exponentially better filters and sources of information

or I mean, if you watch fox news or are a twitter user you sorta get the worst of both worlds I guess

what do you mean by better filters and sources? xp ha

I follow @coffee_dad, which is possibly the least addictive twitter account ever made

what do you mean by better filters and sources? xp ha

well if this were 1980 and I wanted to read about news subject x, I'd have fewer options. and if I wanted to make sure that I received 'relevant information' about news subject x, I'd have to jump through more hoops.

I'm beginning to sound like some silicon valley dude or something, idk I just like reading blogs

The main plank of the book in question isn't really that people need to consume less information per se, but that people are going to best function with a diet that is balanced to their needs. To be honest, I'm very prone to falling into bad habits with media consumption, in that rather than looking for a variety of sources to be happy, I'll binge at a narrow well. That might be articles that a select source of blogs (or ilx) have pointed me to, or it might mean zoning out on the same handful of police procedural television shows.

I'm happiest when I give myself a chance to sit and read some long-form media, consume most of a magazine and not just the articles that my sources have cherry-picked, and watch television in moderation rather than having it constantly on and binging. I'm guilty of having headphones on at work, but really I've taken a lot of time to go places where I can listen to my surroundings lately, or I'll set aside a couple hours to just lay around and listen to a new album or two.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/one-on-one-clay-johnson-author-of-the-information-diet/