I enjoy eliminating clutter, so I thought I would do the same for my media consumption. I want to screen out information that does not contribute to decision making or self-improvement. I also want to make sure that when I am seeking learning or entertainment, I do so deliberately instead of mindlessly, so that I can enjoy it.
I uninstalled the mobile Facebook app and now check in once a day on the desktop site to see any notifications. I send two or three interesting articles to my Kindle instead of browsing Feedly endlessly. I reduced my browser bookmarks bar. And I avoid hitting the refresh button on any of these sites and apps.
The impulse to declutter came when I noticed that all these websites are converging on the same bottomless page format – a feed. In addition each feed is personalized because of my own selections and the company’s algorithms. Accordingly each feed was presenting me with the same content. Reddit, Feedly, Facebook, Pinterest, Stack Exchange, Youtube, and the Google articles that appear below the mobile search bar were all giving me the same stuff. Even my podcasts are about those same topics. Thanks to the site and app design there is no reason to leave; all you have to do to chase the next hit is keep scrolling or keep tapping the right arrow.
There may be disadvantages to decluttering that I haven’t yet noticed. And cutting things out is an imprecise approach. It would be better to take Jacob Fisker’s advice (from Early Retirement Extreme) and instead of cutting things out, engage with the same information but at a higher level of abstraction. The problem is that I don’t quite know how to do this and in the book he did not elaborate. It’s easier to eliminate large swaths of clutter and then selectively re-acquire things when a need arises.
pseudoisaac 