YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (CONSUME)

ByLukas Wydrych

We all know the saying: You are what you eat. It expresses the belief that what you absorb from the outside shapes you. On a material level, we supply our bodies with molecules that keep us alive. In this complex process, one could, simplifying, say that most human cells are replaced every 7–10 years. Yet we retain our material identity, if only because we age.

In the tradition of yogis, you can hear about the energetic exchange between us and what we feed on. That’s why they’re so opposed to eating meat. The energy of fear accumulated in a slaughtered animal enters our body and fills us with that fear.

On an intellectual level, we consume content. We fill ourselves to the brim with random information that flows through us and in which we drown. The engineering of easy dopamine, behind ever-shorter video formats, sweeps us away in the rapid current of the data stream.

This is a very broad and multifaceted topic. What I wanted to focus on today is the feeding algorithms. Feeders that fulfill the biblical injunction:

“For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in.”

They appear as good Samaritans who, knowing us better than we know ourselves, do what’s best for us – even if we think otherwise. But usually, we don’t think otherwise because we don’t notice anything.

There’s another saying – you become like those you associate with. In a time when our existence is mostly in the online space, we become those we subscribe to. This is the so-called information bubble. It should rather be called an information sphere, at whose edges you can only see the microwave radiation of other opinions. It has at least two faces:

  • Negative: it’s like the Oort Cloud surrounding our solar system – invisible, and some don’t believe it exists.
  • Positive: if you believe it exists, you can try to break out of it.

You can try to listen for messages from the edges of our understanding, and with just a bit more awareness, you can shape it. Since you are like those you associate with, associate with successful people. Surround yourself with creative people. Surround yourself with people who fill you with positive energy. Use awareness. Transcend between accounts and subscribe to diversity. Let the algorithms feed you what’s directed toward creation. Because creation is the yin to consumption’s yang. In time, it will turn out that you can live in this diverse local crowd.

Possible Professions of the Future:

  • Construction company: builder of positive information bubbles.
  • Demolition company: dismantler of old information bubbles.
  • Algorithm tamer.
  • Pusher in a different direction.

What Should We Teach Our Children:

  • Critical thinking.
  • Standing aside, standing on the edge of the rushing river of content.
  • Forcing themselves to step beyond well-trodden digital paths.
  • Creating multiple accounts, subscribing to opposing creators.