Garbage in, Garbage out
There’s a powerful quote that ends the second chapter in Carl Sagan’s “The Demon-Haunted World”:
“An extraterrestrial being, newly arrived on Earth — scrutinizing what we mainly present to our children in television, radio, movies, newspapers, magazines, the comics, and many books — might easily conclude that we are intent on teaching them murder, r*pe, cruelty, superstition, credulity, and consumerism. We keep at it, and through constant repetition many of them finally get it. What kind of society could we create if, instead, we drummed into them science and a sense of hope?”
And this isn’t just true for our kids, it’s true for us as well.
Take a moment to think about everything we consume on a daily basis, how much of it is junk?
How much of it is outrage bait, or focused around sex, violence, drama, etc.?
I’m not saying we should never consume content with these elements in it, (I love a great action/vengeance movie myself), but the ratio is way off.
If I had to guess, it’s safe to say over half of what the average person consumes is “junk media”. (And if I’m being honest, it’s probably a lot higher than that).
But the problem is our thoughts and ideas are only as good as the inputs we feed our mind.
We can’t come up with great ideas, profound and life changing ideas, if we don’t give our mind the right fuel.
Garbage in, garbage out.
What we need is a new philosophy around what we consume.
What if instead of 75-90% of everything we consume being junk content, we flipped that ratio around?
What if we spent 75% of the time consuming content that inspired us, educated us, and made us think? And used the remaining 25% to enjoy the movies or shows we want to watch?
Can you imagine how much clearer our minds would be?
How much deeper and more profound our thoughts would be?
In a world where people spend 4 hours a day on social media, but haven’t opened a book in years,
Or spend a whole weekend binge watching a show, but won’t spend time to learn a new skill…
Don’t be like most people.
Just like it’s ok to eat junk food some of the time, but terrible if you do it most of the time,
It’s better to consume junk media in moderation, and use most of your time and energy to do things that enrich your life, and make you smarter, happier, and more content.