What Are You Feeding Your Mind?
In a recent Farnham Street Newsletter, Shane Parrish wrote, “Your body reflects what you eat. Your mind reflects what you consume.” October 20, 2024, No. 598.
Mental junk food is low-value, highly addictive information or digital content that stimulates but doesn’t nourish the mind, similar to how processed snack foods affect our bodies.
Examples of mental junk food include news media designed to inflame emotions, much of social media, and entertainment gossip. Mental junk food is what my grandkids are constantly watching on TikTok.
If your diet consists primarily of mental junk food, it’s likely to result in more stress, anger, and frustration. Reading negative news and stories designed to create emotional outrage can lead to feeling depressed and angry all the time.
How to Spot Mental Junk Food
The question to ask yourself when you’re reading or listening is, “Is this mental junk food or not?”
I’s not mental junk food if you’re reading non-fiction books that you’ve carefully selected and researched, or balanced articles, or doing skills training. Additionally, fiction can be considered a non-junk food when it’s intentionally read for enjoyment and edification.
Reading or listening to junk food becomes a problem when it’s a constant stream and is starting to become addictive. ‘News junkies’ and ‘doom scrolling’ are a reality in our world.
Declutter Your Digital Diet
• Notice what you are consuming on autopilot and routinely review the informational diet that you engage in. You can’t avoid mental junk food if you’re not aware you are consuming it.
You can do this by reviewing the apps on your devices. Do you have multiple news apps that tempt you to tap on them to stay up-to-date with the latest news from various sources?
Review your RSS feeds on your reader. What have you signed up to receive regularly? Finally, review your email subscriptions as well. If any of these sources are things that you identify as junk food sources, delete them.
• Curate your digital environment. Remove junk food apps and make educational, nourishing sources more accessible.
Many digital platforms, including news feeds, are designed to hook us, exploiting our impulse for novelty and validation, leading us to even more mindless consumption. Just as processed junk food is engineered for hyper-palatability, information junk food is engineered for maximum engagement, not lasting value.
“Before diving into the news or scrolling through feeds, ask, ‘Will this still matter next year?” If not, it’s probably mental junk food. The sugar high will leave you craving even more.” Shane Parrish, Farnam Street Newsletter
Shane Parrish, Farnam Street Newsletter
Buddhist monk Haemin Sunim wrote, “Ask yourself whether you truly need to know the latest news about politics, accidents, and celebrities. We mindlessly consume it all without thinking. And, like instant noodles, it provides no nutrients.” Love for Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself in a World Striving for Perfection.
• Prioritize substance over novelty. “Seek wisdom that endures instead of whatever is simply trending at the moment. What’s lasting knowledge? It’s wisdom that endures, timeless principles, foundational ideas, and insights that remain relevant for years, not hours.” Farnum Street Newsletter.
If what you’re reading won’t matter in the next few months, don’t consume it. Instead, focus on material that has lasting value for you. This could include skill development, technical knowledge, hobby exploration, and idea generation.
In the last few months, I’ve read several books that are firmly in the non-junk food category. These include Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World, and three books by Oliver Burkeman: Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts; Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals; and The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.
All of these books have prompted much constructive thinking on my part and have made a positive difference in my life. That’s a very different result than if I’d spent my time reading mental junk food.
• Avoid material designed to provoke strong emotions or outrage. One of the ways junk food grabs our attention is by offering us strong emotional content.
Some sources major in the “outrage of the week club.” This often takes the form of political content. News media outlets often overemphasize the significance of events and spin the facts to provoke outrage, thereby capturing our attention. Short memes in social media typically give a distorted and unbalanced view of facts and is designed only to provoke an unthinking reaction by the reader.
Feed Your Mind Wisdom That Endures
Much of what we consume today is designed to distract rather than enrich. If it won’t matter next year—or even next week—it’s likely just a sugar hit for the mind.
The alternative? Choose ideas with staying power. Fill your mind with depth, nuance, and timeless insight. “Avoid mental junk food. Feed your mind substance. Your future self will thank you.” Farnam Street Newsletter.
Take five minutes today to reflect on what you’ve consumed this week. What fed your growth? What filled time?
Audit your mental inputs. Replace one source of noise with a source of wisdom. Your mind becomes what you feed it—so choose with care.
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, and improvements to the text.
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