It is often said that we are what we eat, and this comes up typically in the context of having healthy habits to live a healthy life. Our body will use the kind of food we ingest for development and maintenance, not paying attention to this may lead to bad long term effects in our well-being. A similar concept can also be applied to the world of information consumption. And when I say information consumption, I am thinking about the content we pay attention to with the apps that we frequently open in our phone, the websites we recurrently visit, and/or the more traditional/media we often use.
Every second we are alive, our brain is modifying itself, connections between neurons get reinforced or weaken at different timescales. They encode and replay our memories, shape our skills, determine our future behaviors and decisions. We are capable of very quickly remembering events that happened minutes o hours ago (e.g., where we parked our car), forgetting what may not be that useful anymore (e.g., where we parked two days ago), or detecting statistically regular patterns that repeat over extended periods of time (e.g., the typical timing of traffic lights along a frequent commute).
When we repetitively expose ourselves to any kind of information, we will inevitably integrate it into ourselves. We are going to be influenced by it, it may reshape the way we perceive and interpret our surroundings and the events that we experience. It can make easier for our brain to highlight certain features, it will amplify our inevitable biases and stereotypes in one way or another. Hence, it seems important to reflect on the kind of content that we consume because it will slowly change us and, before we are too engaged in that direction, it is worth assessing if this points in the direction of the kind of person we would like to become.
It is easy to think this will not happen to us, we may be consuming certain content because it just amuse us, we find it funny, it helps us cope with our routine, our boredom, our waiting moments. But we cannot escape, it will influence us, it will slowly reshape us. If a healthy life implies wisely picking the food we eat and having a balanced diet, it also implies consciously choosing what information we repetitively consume.
Our current social media and automatic news feeds decide for us what we consume, the algorithms optimize the process to maximize some parameter (e.g., time spent in their ecosystem, hijacking our attention) that most likely is not in alignment with what we consider it is the best for our future self. Delegating that content curation to an algorithm that is fully controlled by third parties with their own interest might not be the best option. Similarly, a (more traditional) TV channel, newspaper or editorial optimizes their content to maximize audience, and once again, we need to assess if their values and goals are aligned with what we want to become. There is no easy solution, no infallible cost-free strategy that will protect our interests and well-being. As with many things in life, we need to assess and make our own decision, understanding we can get it wrong and we may need to frequently re-evaluate. Is our information consumption contributing positively to our lives? Are we growing, learning and expanding our understanding of the world? Are we avoiding pitfalls, irrational biases, black-or-white views? I find this exercise deeply challenging and so far I am struggling to find good compromises.