How to Manage Your Media Consumption

How to Manage Your Media Consumption

What you consume matters.

Think of the food you eat and how it affects your body:

When you put clean, nutritious food into your body, you gain mental clarity and feel energized.

But when you eat greasy, fried chicken or too many potato chips, you experience mental fog and bloating.

The same is true for media consumption.

There is a direct correlation between the media you consume and the thoughts it produces in your head.

The thoughts in your head inform your feelings, which inform your actions, which create your results.

With that being said, how can you intentionally consume media to positively affect your mindset and minimize the input of unproductive media consumption?

Productive vs. Unproductive Consumption

Let’s discuss what constitutes productive and unproductive media consumption and how you can manage this.

Productive Media Consumption

Here are examples of productive media consumption:

Podcasts

According to podcastinsights.com, there are currently over 1 million podcasts as of April 2020.

You can find a podcast for pretty much anything you’re interested in.

You can search for podcasts and listen on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Podbean.

There are some amazing personal development podcasts on the market that I highly recommend if you want to focus on personal growth and fulfillment.

You can see a list of my favorites here.

Books

Reading is the perfect hobby.

Not only is it informational and educational, but it increases brain connectivity and helps your brain create white matter.

It also increases your attention span and those who read are said to live longer than those who don’t.

Reading is so powerful and is the perfect outlet to educate yourself on any topic.

If you want to build on your personal growth, pick up some of my favorite reads listed here.

Videos

Spring 2020 brought with it the surge in popularity of videos.

Pretty much everyone was going live or doing Zoom calls.

Prior to this time, people mostly associated YouTube with video consumption.

But with most people stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, social media live videos, church services and Zoom calls escalated in popularity, paving a new way to stay connected.

In light of cancelled live events, videos are a great way to provide productive input to an audience stuck at home.

Some motivational speakers, such as Rachel Hollis, are even bringing their live events online for a much cheaper ticket price.

Unproductive Media Consumption

Let’s talk about what constitutes as unproductive media consumption.

Television

Most TV shows are created for entertainment purposes only.

There’s nothing wrong with watching TV in moderation, it’s just not a productive form of product consumption.

If you find yourself routinely binge-watching shows on Netflix, set a time limit on TV time.

Either set a timer or put a block in your schedule specifically for this activity. But don’t turn the TV on outside of that blocked time.

The News

Let me be clear in that the news isn’t all that bad-but only if you know how to navigate it.

Here are the pitfalls of news consumption and solutions should you fall prey to them:

Negative news stories trigger anxiety.

Solution: Monitor your news consumption and practice self-coaching with your thoughts.

There is a legitimate reason to check the news at certain times, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of us have been glued to the news because we are waiting on updates regarding stay-at-home orders, social distancing guidelines and businesses opening/closing.

This is important information to know since it directly impacts our routines and every day living.

However, when you check the news more than once or twice a day, this creates extra fear and anxiety on top of what you may already be feeling based on the circumstances alone.

Set restrictions on your news consumption. Give yourself 15-30 minutes in the morning and another 15-30 minutes in the evening to catch up on the news.

This should give you ample time to get the information you need, but not long enough to get sucked into a black hole of despair.

If you are struggling with negative thoughts and feelings over what you see in the news, I invite you to use the self-coaching model I break down for you in How to Solve any Problem.

This model teaches you how to intentionally create your thoughts about any circumstance.

Never let the current news cycle control your thoughts when you have the capacity to think anything you want.

My Bachelor’s degree is in journalism and I can tell you the media is in the business of making money.

Just like any other business.

They are going to produce content that gets clicks.

This is how they get your attention and this is how they make money.

So just keep that in mind when consuming news.

Partisan news stories (and their subsequent “discussion” thread that follows) increase frustration.

Solution: Don’t read or contribute to the comments.

Any news article regarding a topic readers have strong beliefs about can cause frustration for two reasons:

-Depending on your beliefs, you may disagree with the article.

-The comments or discussion thread that follows is a cesspool of negativity. (Have you ever seen a thread of comments with pleasant people agreeing to disagree? Didn’t think so).

Do yourself a huge favor and avoid commenting on any news article unless it serves a purpose (such as tagging a friend who would be interested in the content).

Once you leave a comment, those who disagree with you will comment back and you’ll waste your time commenting back and forth, with no productive end goal.

The bottom line is it serves no purpose (other than to aggravate yourself and others) to read or engage in comments on news articles.

Repeated negative news stories about trending topics make us feel unsafe (such as a string of news stories about shootings).

Solution: Practice awareness.

Again, the media are in the business of making money.

If one particular news story gets a lot of press, they’ll be sure to cover more just like it.

This has become increasingly common in the technology age where we have 24/7 access to the news.

Pre-technology, something would happen and it would be in the newspaper the next day.

But a lot of things happened that we never heard about, and ignorance is bliss.

Readers didn’t have the news at their fingertips, nor the ability to provide instant feedback (messages and comments) for media outlets to know what was piquing readers’ interests.

Today, something happens and within minutes the news is streaming live coverage, keeping you on your toes.

The shock and awe of trending news topics become the basis for media outlets to report on more of the same.

Be mindful of this.

Practice the self-coaching model I mentioned above to coach your way through negative thoughts if you need to.

Over-consumption of news destroys day-to-day productivity.

Solution: Monitor your time.

If you’re constantly hitting the refresh button on your local news’ Facebook page, waiting for the latest updates, your productivity is going to suffer.

You have complete control over your productivity, so be sure to follow the guidelines I mentioned above. 15-30 minutes once or twice a day to consume news.

Not only will you be more productive, you’ll shift your mind to something else other than what’s going on in the world.

Your mental health depends on you having some sense of normalcy..

Fraudulent news stories lead us to be deceived.

Solution: Fact check.

Unfortunately, “news” stories that prove to not be true are running rampant these days.

Even media companies with intentions to only publish true news stories are guilty of sharing illegitimate content by mistake.

Always fact check when something seems suspicious.

Social Media

Your social feeds are a productivity killer if you don’t engage in mindful consumption.

Endless scrolling.

Solution: Monitor your time.

It is just as easy to get sucked into the social media trap as it is the news cycle.

Give yourself a time limit on social media once or twice a day to post, respond to notifications, and scroll to your heart’s content.

I have my notifications disabled on my phone so I don’t even receive them.

You’re less likely to be tempted to click into your social accounts if you’re not getting distracted by the constant ping of notifications.

If you really need an intervention, you might want to delete the social apps off your phone altogether. You can always add them back later.

Social media can be useful in moderation but is a serious issue when personal usage gets out of control.

Negative posts.

Solution: Unfollow

Do you remember what informed your thoughts prior to the introduction of social media?

Think about it for a minute…

It’s tough to remember, isn’t it? We’ve been living in the digital age for so long.

What you see on social media can easily impact your state of mind, for better or worse.

It’s why I personally don’t share anything that isn’t funny, meaningful, or cute (i.e. here’s another picture of my dogs!).

Before I post anything, I think of the thoughts and feelings I want to invoke in the audience reading my content, and also check my intentions at the door.

If someone is always sharing content that creates negative thoughts and feelings in you, the best thing you can do is unfollow, even if it’s only temporary.

For more help in this area, check out Bad Social Media Habits You Need to Stop.