Information input
Active vs passive information consumption
What we consume builds our thoughts. Thoughts make us. It’s important to be conscious of what we consume into our body.
Our body is engineered to process the input given in, as all systems do. From what we see to what we eat, everything is processed. If we wish to have the desired output, we should know how our body processes inputs and feed it with necessary inputs.
With recent advancement in smartphones and the Internet, information is available in abundance. The Internet has noise too. Not all pieces of information put out there is needed or important. We should be cautious about signal and noise. Process of avoiding noise is challenging. We have to identify them based on a few factors, which differs from person to person.
Every information is processed. It means there is a thought process that goes into the information we take in. More the unwanted information is taken in, more is our mind occupied with the unwanted thought process. It affects our ability to focus.
Types of information consumption
The ways we consume the information can help us reduce noise input. It can be classified into two types, Active and Passive.
Active Information consumption: There are types of information that is being read or watched because we wanted to know. We put effort into finding the source for that information. In other words, we already know what we want to know. The desire to know is developed within, no external force.
examples: Google search, looking into the index of a book, reading a book which is about a particular topic, asking people.
Passive Information consumption: The information that is consumed not because we wanted to know. It is being shown to us. The desire for the act of information input into our system is not from within. It is from some other person or entity.
example: Social media feed, Newspapers, News channels, E-commerce notifications, Recommendation (Youtube, Netflix), etc.
Understanding the effects of both the types.
We know that we have complete control of active consumption. We can search for the information from the right or true source, which is not easy too. At least we know the topic or the context. It is a self-driven act.
Passive consumption is not a self-driven act. We have less control over what exactly we take in. Thus making it very important to manage passive consumption. let’s Categorize the passive input. It helps us to manage.
Advertisements: If someone wants us to see something, that means they want to either sell us something or get our attention so that they can sell us later. Most of these contents are advertisements. Adds these days don’t look like one. It could be in the form of various content which looks interesting but most of the time doesn’t add value. The goal is to avoid them.
Social media feed is filled with ads. Avoiding mindless scrolling helps.
Using adblockers in our android and pc browsers.
Using applications with no ads. Even if the payment is required. It’s worth it!
Using browsers like Brave which avoids all the ads ( iframes ) by default. No ads on youtube!!
Unsubscribe to junk emails periodically. Use good email clients that block ads/spam.
News channels: News is a lot of information. Not all of them are useful or useless. News contains negative activities. This is not good for our system. We can spend all day going through the news feed and end up depressed at the end of the day. We don’t even realise why. Being updated with current activities around us is important to an extent, but most parts are crime, negative and unhealthy.
We don’t have to process all the stuff that’s going around us. Most of them are irrelevant to us. If they are relevant we will be informed one or the other way.
Social Media: Social media is the hub for content creators and markers. Many attractive contents are created to draw our attention. Don’t get me wrong. There is beautiful content which is posted with a genuine interest. Most of them are trying to sell in one or the other way. Activity feeds are also filled with many adds
App push notification: We use many applications all day. The reason could be triggered externally or internally.
Internal triggers are when we want to get work done and open applications. Example: opening google maps for navigation, Phone app for making a call, WhatApp for sending a text message, order food, book a cab and many more.
External triggers are when we open the app with no intention of getting some work done. We get push notifications of various offers, deals, ads, recommendations, etc. Example: Youtube, Netflix, notification when some content is created or posted, e-commerce apps posting offers, Food delivery services putting out some deals of meals, etc.
We are asked to use the application with these external triggers. We consume information about what application owners want us to. It can affect our behaviour. For example, an add from amazon sales could lead us to check out the products. Maybe we’ll end up buying one or at least develop a desire to buy one.
The goal is to avoid external triggers.
Managing information input source
Hitting the right balance is not vet easy. Managing the sources of information consumption is like a skill which requires time to reach the right balance. It’s a continuous process. Based on the type of information and our personalities, the processes of managing differs.
The goal is to increase active consumption and be cautious about passive consumption. Click to check Few hacks that I follow
To become what we want, it is important to put the right information into our system. Let’s not become what society wants to become. There are no rules. Its completely is our discretion to build ourself to what we want to.