HOW IS THE MEDIA YOU CONSUME IMPACTING ON YOUR VALUES AND BELIEFS?

Consumerism – it’s an interesting word frequently heard in the current climate and capable of provoking a range of reactions with different meanings for different people.

Perhaps ‘consumerism’ instantly brings to mind the food we eat or our shopping habits and what we spend  money on.  Perhaps for some it feels like a ‘dirty’ word that brings up concerns around greed or the impact of consumerism on the environment.  Whatever connotation it has, it can also relate to the less tangible ‘stuff’ including what we are consuming via the daily diet of media we digest.

Much has been written about the impact of food on mood, it seems as if everywhere we look we are presented with new ideas on what our optimum daily food consumption should consist of.  Given that food is only one part of our daily menu, maybe now is the time to start paying close attention to how our daily diet of media is impacting on us.

Food for thought………

If you’ve ever become aware of yourself going down an instagram (insert social media of choice) hole, losing track of time, scrolling through endless images, did you pause and pay attention to how it made you feel?

If you’ve been consuming news in abundance, how is this shaping your beliefs?  Is it increasing a sense of trust and connection to your fellow humans, or creating a feeling that the world is a scary place full of ‘wrong doers’ with danger at every turn?

Currently, there is much debate on the impact of social media and the contribution to a culture of comparison.  It may be interesting to explore what version of life we are comparing ourselves to and whether it is truly aligned to what we individually value.

Of course it’s not just the obvious social media sites that we ingest; there is now more music, more TV services to subscribe to, podcasts, films on demand, the list goes on.  In the same way that we choose vegetables to care for our bodies we can feed ourselves media that nourishes our minds.  We can pause and ask ourselves if what we are consuming is uplifting us, or dragging us down and clouding our perception in unhelpful ways.

In an ever changing world we are free to choose our own individual values and beliefs and hold them in our hearts, regardless of how we are being influenced; we can adopt an intentional and somewhat discerning approach to getting crystal clear on what we value and curating a catalogue to support that.

What will you include on your ‘playlist’?