How to Build a Media Diet

This is not a course about consuming less, although for most people, less will be a side effect. It's a course about consuming on purpose — choosing your music, films, podcasts, and books based on the feeling or outcome you actually want, instead of whatever autoplay queues up next. The recommendation systems running underneath every platform you use are not neutral. They are built by teams whose job is to maximize your time on the platform, and they have no incentive to ask what you're actually trying to get out of the next hour. Most media consumption isn't chosen. It's served. The result, for almost everyone, is a media diet built entirely by other people's incentives, with your actual goals and emotional needs never consulted — hours of "content" that fill time without ever asking what you wanted to feel, learn, or experience.