Week 8 - My Information Diet

It can be hard to make diet and exercise a priority when you’re working full time and taking graduate courses, but I know how important it is, so I’ve been trying to make improvements. I’ve been trying to work on my physical fitness by putting more exercise into my schedule and by making healthier choices about what I eat. Most week days I drive 45 minutes to an office where I sit for eight and a half hours, only to return to my car for another 45 minutes to an hour of sitting. That’s 10 hours of being sedentary in a day, not including what I do when I come home. When I come home I’m usually tired, and succumb to the lure of more lounging or even a nap. I did some reading on the subject, and learned that sitting has an extremely detrimental effect on one’s physical fitness and stamina, especially when coupled with a diet containing an embarrassing number of microwave pizzas and Chinese takeout. I discovered recently that I have been taking in a lot of fat and sugar, and these can lead to heart disease and other health problems. A recent doctor’s visit revealed my blood pressure and cholesterol to be higher than normal. I’m a young guy, so this news shocked me. It scared me and compelled me to make some changes. I can’t change the 45 minutes of sitting during my commute, but there are some areas of my life where I can make some healthier choices. I decided to start with my eating habits. I cut out most coffee and soda and drink fizzy water instead. I try to include something green at every meal. When I’m out to eat I choose fish or salad over burgers and fries and other high fat items. I’ve been going to yoga and riding my bike. I go for walks around my neighborhood after work. At work, where I have to sit most of the day, I try to make a habit of getting up from my desk at least once an hour to stretch my legs. Sometimes I do yoga at my desk.

Once I incorporated these changes into my routine I began to notice a difference in the way I felt physically, but there was still something that didn’t feel quite right. Even though I felt better about my physical stamina, I noticed that my levels of worry and anxiety were higher than normal. I’m normally a worrier. I have come to understand this about myself, but when I read Clay Johnson’s book The Information Diet I realized that the information I was consuming was having an effect on me the way that lack of exercise and nutrition were. I started to take a closer look at the information I take in on a daily basis. The biggest problem, I found, was news. The radio in my car tends to be always on. During my 45 minute morning commute and the 45-hourlong commute in the afternoon, my radio is set to the news. There’s some traffic and weather mixed in, but mostly news, specifically NPR. The programs feature political updates from this year’s presidential election, stories from around the world including the latest tragedy in Syria, the refugee crisis, the latest ISIS attack, outbreaks of disease, and other calamities that occur all over the globe. All of this exposure to negativity, I realize, for hours a day, was actually having a real effect on my mood.

Clay Johnson stresses taking an active role in controlling our information consumption. He says to focus our attention on more local matters. I can’t do much to affect the war in Syria. I can’t change our government’s policies on admitting refugees. I can’t cure Ebola or AIDS. But I can vote in local elections to improve safety in my community. I can read about what local small businesses are thriving and strive to patronize them. I can donate to my local shelter or food pantry. Just as I’d adjusted my food and exercise diets, I decided to make some changes in my information diet. Instead of taking in large quantities of news for hours a day, I decided to mix in more varied content. I’ve started watching TED Talks or reading fiction on my lunch break at work. When I have a free moment at work, instead of going to the New York Times, Washington Post or CNN to read about the latest election gaffe, I log into Facebook and look for messages from my friends in the US and overseas. When I get in my car to head home, instead of putting on NPR, I listen to one of a few of my favorite comedy podcasts.  I have noticed a difference. I know that there will continue to be bad news from all over the world. I don’t intent to blind myself to it. I still listen to news radio once or twice a week, and if something big happens, I’m not going to miss out. I’ll hear about it. In the last few months, limiting my exposure to the global calamities that are ultimately out of my control, I’ve noticed that my mood is overall better and my outlook more cheerful. I sleep better and have noticeably less worry and anxiety. I’ve managed to make some small improvements to my food and information diets.

This has implications for me as an educator. I didn't even know how much my media consumption affected me until I started taking a closer look at it. School-age kids who are unable to discern bias, unable to separate message from format, and unable to properly filter what they take in, can be caught unawares. It can seem a daunting task to teach kids to regulate their own consumption. They take in content from so many sources - Facebook, Instagram, Vine, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter, text messages, blogs, feeds, reels, channels, and yes, still TV. If teachers don't even know what some of those media are, how can we combat their negative effects on our young people? We need to teach kids overall filtering skills, so they can apply them to a range of media. We need to compel them to see the difference between reliable and suspect material, so they can continue to make those decisions throughout their lives. I think recent events have shown us that people with a glut of unreliable information are likely to believe anything, and that can have dire consequences for our country. We can't afford to have media illiterate students who become media illiterate civilians and voters. If we model responsible information consumption and show kids the difference, then they and our country will be better off.