The Mental Diet

One of the fastest growing problems today is information overload. There is so much information that we don't know what we should know or not know. We don't know what to delete or not to delete. The result is a feeling of anxiety and despair as we gain access to more and more information. Like the obesity problem, this is a problem of abundance. The answer to both problems is to go on a diet. We already know what kind of diet we need for our bodies. We now need a diet for our minds.

Some information is vital. Most information is useless. Some we need to know. Some we only need access to. This is why people will memorize the periodic table but not the NYC telephone book. It all depends on the need to know. This is person relative which is why an information diet can be so problematic. For instance, a stock market trader is going to need more info on current events than a millwright working in a factory. I think the solution is to categorize the information. You can then make choices based on these categories.

The categories I have created are based on a total life of the mind versus what you might have flowing into your feed reader. I believe there are four kinds of information--entertainment, news, education, and training. Let us proceed.

1. ENTERTAINMENT

Entertainment are television shows, video games, watching dogs and cats on YouTube, engaging in pointless pissing matches on Facebook, etc. It also involves listening to music, going to the art museum, watching sports, reading a novel, or what have you. The purpose of entertainment is to escape reality for awhile. It is an alternative experience. This is the least important element in a mental diet.

2. NEWS

News is all the information on current events. It can cover politics, sports, gossip, or what have you. News is more important than entertainment because it may affect your life in a significant way. But most of the time, it is barely a notch above entertainment.

3. EDUCATION

Education is the next step up as this information is more important and life changing. This can be history, science, mathematics, or what have you. Of course, like with news and entertainment, education can be frivolous as well. Studying theology seems very wasteful to me as opposed to studying political philosophy. But I think studying theology is better than reading tabloid trash.

4. TRAINING

Training is education applied to a vocational endeavor or acquiring a vital skill. Where studying biology is education, studying medicine is training. Training can involve learning a language, mastering a martial art, or what have you.

I present these categories within the framework of a hierarchy. I think training is better than entertainment. I think education is better than news. But this does not answer the information overload question. It just gives us the tools to answer that question.

The answer to the information overload problem is simple. You must choose the essential and ignore the non-essential. It is deciding what is essential and what is non-essential that is the problem. But just looking at those categories already gives you a clue. You can eliminate almost all entertainment and most of what is news with little to no ill effect on your life. Of course, this only applies if you don't work in the fields of entertainment or politics. As I said, it is person relative. But it seems to me that the bulk of our mental diet should be devoted to the quality areas of education and training since these have the biggest impact. It also explains why universities and colleges and trade schools charge big money for this information. It is valuable information.

Certain thinkers in the past have tried to categorize information in terms of what was important and what was detrimental. There was the distinction between "high brow" and "low brow" as if popular entertainment and taste was somehow inferior to the tastes of the elite. What these people forget is that Shakespeare was a hack pandering to the masses of his day. It will amaze you how yesterday's low brow stuff becomes tomorrow's high brow stuff.

Another distinction was Neil Postman's verbal/visual dichotomy as presented in Amusing Ourselves to Death. That book was a big influence on me even motivating me to ditch my TV set in favor of books and a radio. Postman's thesis was that the visual passive medium of television was corrosive to the intellect. He made some dire predictions as well about the future of civilization. Naturally, he was wrong and could not see the impact of the internet which is largely a text based medium or that the bulk of today's television is a bunch of talking heads. Getting rid of your TV makes about as much sense as getting rid of your car because all that walking will get you into shape. Why not get rid of central heat and chop firewood?

I think trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all information diet or trying to come up with some sort of hard and fast category of what is good or bad is doomed to failure. Like with a food diet, I think the answer is to have some kind of balance. News and entertainment are like fast food and candy while education and training are like the vegetables, carbs, and protein your body needs. The answer is to choose better quality information over lower quality information.

For most people, their mental diet is concentrated in two areas--training and entertainment. People learn what they need for their jobs. Then, they goof off and waste time with shit like professional wrestling, sports, action movies, etc. Geeks and nerds tend to fall into this category knowing how to program computers but spending their idle time watching Lord of the Rings and gaming. News and education tend to appeal to the intelligentsia who spend their time reading Derrida and the New York Times. Losers live solely in the realm of entertainment while autistic savant types spend the bulk of their time towards the education/training end of the pool. There can be clashes and snobbery over this sort of thing. Like vegetarians and carnivorous Atkins paleo eaters, people find identity in their mental diets.

I can't speak to individual needs and tastes. I think most people wish they didn't spend so much time on Facebook. My mental diet breaks down like this. I try to read one book each week alternating between fiction and non-fiction. I watch one DVD or streaming video each week alternating between fiction and non-fiction. I keep my reading, internet, and video consumption confined to 9 pm or later. The rest of the time I listen to the radio or my iPod while cleaning the house, performing chores, etc. I try to weight my media consumption towards educational material. Media consumption is leisure for me. As for training, I treat that as work.

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