Overcoming The 8th Cardinal Sin: Internet Gluttony

A breakdown of the concept of alt nutrition for your mind.

Nutrition is not only what we ingest from our mouth, but also what we see through our eyes and hear with our ears. The content we consume, and the conversations indulge in, are also nutrition in its literal sense. These factors, in various ways, shape the person we are.

So do we consume things that help us grow? If we indulge in conversations that uplift others and add to their life, we add a good sort of nutrition for ourselves as well as the people around us. When we act in a way that creates a sense of toxicity for someone else’s life we add suffering to ours. Also, unknowingly we often consume communication that is toxic from what we watch/read. This may be content that makes us feel insecure or content that makes us feel superior to others. None of these are of any benefit to us. This makes our frame of thinking narrow. Today on social media the kind of content we mindlessly consume has a massive impact on our thought processes and the ways we act. “The internet is a place of consumption with items of both healing and toxic” — Dan Woren (The Art of Communicating). The internet makes it easier for us than ever to ingest tons of content in just a few minutes. For the most part of it, this is not the content we’ve picked out for ourselves but is fed to us by the algorithm or artificial intelligence, that has one job, to keep us hooked. This doesn’t mean you delete Instagram and keep youtube out of your life. This means you develop a habit of conscious consumption. When you’re on Instagram watching reels for hours you’re completely lost in another world unknowingly. This rabbit hole barely has a stop button for people. For the most part, it’s like eating chips. It’s fine to eat chips at times. But you might seem crazy if you keep eating chips for hours. That’s what usage of Instagram has become today. Eating chips for hours. For some reason, it’s also been normalized. Often, I seem to find myself in the same position.

Here’s how I fix myself, and you can too.

The Bookshop, Jor Bagh, Delhi, India (Photo by Kunal Singh Chhabra)

Conscious Consumption

What one needs to understand what you read shapes your frame of mind, so be conscious of what you consume. So consuming all sorts of content and indulging in all conversations around you doesn’t really help the case. In fact, it messes up your focus. Well, that’s a story for another time. Coming back to consumption. Now that we know overconsumption is bad, let’s break down how to consume consciously. It's simple.

1. To start from the top layer: Unfollow. Unfollow the content and people that don’t add value to your life. There is literally no other way. Not Kanye though, he does lighten the mood.
2. Change your consumption pattern: Consumption is all about a pattern that you unconsciously develop. So, choose when and how you consume. Let me take you through how I broke one of my consumption patterns. I could not sit on the pot without my phone. The first step, of course, is realisation. So I just started keeping the phone out in my room before I enter the washroom & started taking a magazine with me instead. I promise you content in your favourite magazine is better curated than the AI on your feed. So replacing Instagram with Architectural Digest gave my brain a f*cking break from mindless consumption to a more curated consumption pattern. Now I at least know which gallery I need to visit to buy art for my living room.
3. Not using your phone for the first hour of waking up and the last hour before you sleep. This is something that all digital gurus suggest. And I like to bust a good myth but this ain’t the one. I have seen an exponential mood upliftment, and this weird sense of peace throughout the day by just not using my phone at these hours. Personally, this has helped me achieve a night of restful sleep, lesser energy crashes throughout the day & a deeper focus.
4. As cliche as this may sound — use your phones & computers, don’t let them use you. With AI, this is a real thing. I have seen the best of individuals fall into this trap of being used by social media. It is a tool that one needs to use to add to their life. Don’t let it rule over you and simply classify it as a tool for knowledge, communication & entertainment in your life, respectively.

Photo by Johaer (Via Unsplash)

Conscious Communication

To frame this in terms of nutrition, each time you send messages to someone, know that it can nourish you as well as the person you’re sending it to. Mindful communication is key. To practice mindfulness while communicating is a concept that has not been as popularised enough or if it has been, it has not been adapted enough. The power of your words has the power to heal yourself and the recipient of your communication. Conscious communication is basically being in a meditative state most of the time. Letting go of judgments, being aware of your breath, and being attentive to your environment inside and outside. This helps you have a grip on your thought & aids in realizing if the thought you’ve produced is one for growth or not.

Often we fall into conversations that are toxic, like gossip. Gossip is casual between friends and workplaces. These conversations are easy to get into and difficult to ignore. What can you do to help if stuck in a similar conversation? Be aware of it happening and not absorb the toxicity. Compassion is a way to diffuse the toxicity, so hearing with compassion helps. Most times, we only consume the thoughts we produce at these times and not the words spoken by the other person at the time. This way you protect yourself from suffering and the other person suffers less.

Conclusion

To come back to where we started, your practices make you. Don’t use this read as a feel-good piece of content but try to implement changes. It is easy to lose your way with such a clutter of information and overburdening connectivity. Skills like focus & discipline aid the process of conscious consumption.

Bottom layer — Thoughts are generated by our environment, who and what you allow in your mind pave way for your future actions. Seek the right thoughts, and be focused to achieve everything you’ve wanted.

Peace fam.