A 21st Century Century Affliction: Media Obesity

"...whatever the root causes, I'm feeling media obese. And obesity, in any form, is Not A Good Thing. I'm realizing I have to treat media with far higher discrimination than I do currently -- and that this will mean ignoring that which is only good and relevant, and focusing only on the very good and very relevant. As a media junky, this restraint will be difficult. We'll see how it goes." [PeterMe]

Wow, is this ever me these days. My favorite part of this post, though, is the first comment by Fred Sampson:

"Reminds me of Schopenhauer's statement that 'Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.' Which Warren Zevon misquoted as 'We buy books because we believe we're buying the time to read them.' I say that I'm being more selective about what I read, and watch, and listen to; but the fact is I keep buying books thinking I'll make time to read them, when in reality I'm thinking that just having them on the shelf will transmit their contents to me by osmosis. I buy DVD's so I can watch them whenever I want to; then I watched 'Lawrence of Arabia' on TCM last night when the DVD's sitting on the shelf behind me. Not to mention all the new podcasts I've downloaded but will never listen to because I never get away from the computer and stereo and television and work for long enough. Media obesity? You betcha."

Amen, although I have to admit that I feel like I know more now than I ever have before, even if I feel like I'm not retaining all of it.