Keeping a clear mind in an overly connected world

I recently had a conversation with a person on the topic of nutrition and health. And within the first 10 seconds of the conversation a picture of Jordan Peterson entered my mind and about 5 seconds later the person uttered his name.

And it isn't the first time this has happened to me, it actually happens all the time. It's becoming more and more difficult to have conversations with people that doesn't revolve around some set of ideas that belong to a cluster of YouTube channels, podcasts and so on. It's almost as if I can tell what YouTube channels, podcasts a person is following by just initiating a conversation with them.

To find a person that genuinely has their own way of thinking or believes/ideas that they have grown from a ground level through their own thinking and judgements seems to be almost impossible. And don't mean original ideas, but more the fact that they actually thought about the information they might be sharing. I believe one of the reasons for this is the way we consume information today, there's no longer this deliberate method of finding information. We're being spoon-fed without us deliberately choosing what it is we might want or need to consume.

I read a book once, can't remember the name, but it touched on the subject of chauffeur knowledge. And this concept definitely applies to the majority of people today. I think in a world so connected, where so much information is being mindlessly consumed, the outcome can't be different.

This is something that has effected me too and that I'm now desperately trying fix. I've been slowly chipping away at this for past couple months and I can honestly say that my mind is feeling a lot more clear, less cluttered and relaxed. It's been one of the best decisions I've made. Here's some of the steps I took to help protect myself from the side effects of the connected world:

• I no longer use any platforms that spoon-feeds me information without me curating the source. This is basically most platforms.
• I've completely stopped using social media for the most part. I did however make list of YouTube channels that I think are good sources of information. I'll check these channels for updates once or twice a week.
• I started using RSS again to subscribe to blogs. I read an articles or two every other day.
• I also started reading more books. This is also something I curate heavily as some modern books are nothing more the advertisements.

Any fool can know. The point is to understand. — Albert Einstein