The McDonald's of Brain Food

Noise cancelling headphones for the internet… A review left on Shane Parrish’s Farnam Street newsletter. I don’t know about you but the imagery that evokes is one of the most calming things I’ve ever experienced.

What would life be like if you were able to cut through all of the noise on the internet and find the things that really mattered?

What if it wasn’t just the internet?

What if your whole life could be calmer by reducing bad inputs?

My wife is laying on the couch this morning, “I don’t know if I’m gonna nap but I’m just gonna lay, I want to turn my brain off for a while.”

When is the last time you just turned your brain off?

This isn’t a newsletter about meditation but it could be…

What percentage of the content you consume on a daily basis was created in the last 24 hours?

• There are 3.7 million videos uploaded to YouTube every day.

• There are 34 million videos uploaded to TikTok every day.

• There are 200 billion Facebook and Instagram reels played. Every. Single. Day.

No one would debate that the type of food you consume affects your physical health.

I’m here to tell you that the information you consume affects your mental health.

You’re stuck in an endless loop of consumption. There is always another video to watch, podcast to listen to or a lifestyle picture on Instagram to see.

Most of it is meaningless and makes us feel objectively worse about ourselves. Here’s a couple examples of types of media and their associated triggered feelings.

• TV News: Helplessness, sadness, anger

• TikTok: Sadness, confusion, emotional volatility

• Instagram: Comparison, FOMO

• Most of YouTube: Boredom, complacency

When’s the last time you watched a cable news segment or spent 30 minutes scrolling on your phone and at the end said to yourself, “I feel better.”

Facebook’s own internal reports show that Instagram is damaging, especially for young girls, and hasn’t done anything to fix the problem. Most of the guys who invented social media don’t let their kids anywhere near it.

In a world where an infinite amount of information exists, the healthiest will be those with the best filters.

Self regulation hard, that’s why half the USA is obese with poor mental health.

Here’s the 10-13% drop in self-reported Canadian mental health statistics in just 3 years of being at home and consuming more.

If you don’t know where to start on your new diet, here’s some ideas:

• Probably never watch CNN again.

• Consume mostly things greater than 10 minutes in length. This is a good filter as it eliminates most low effort or low investment content from the creator.

• Read more books.

• Find “Lindy” content.

We’ve all heard the term: you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. You are also the average of the 5 podcasts you listen to the most.

It’s time to be more mindful about what you’re feeding your brain.