recollect theFood Guide Pyramid , that ' XC - era scout to healthy feeding , brought to you by the helpful folks at the United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA ) ? It is one of many nutrient usher in the USDA ’s long history , but it was the first to focus on what the USDA considered the " good - for - you poppycock " on the pyramid ’s wide base , the bad - for - you poppycock at its tip and all the rest in between .
Now a digital communication strategist and former advertising executive director has created a similar Great Pyramid — except this one center on how we should consume medium instead of food . It ’s an experiment for the 21st hundred — and an endeavor to offer a little physique and meat , a little guidance and suggestion , to what has become our insatiable appetite for selective information and entertainment .
Our Media Addiction
In 2017 , the average American spentmore than 12 hoursa Clarence Shepard Day Jr. with various metier , from television receiver to smartphones to laptop to paper ( remember them ? ) , right down the channel . But is consuming too much mass medium like eating too many french Roger Eliot Fry — spoilt for your wellness ?
All sort of research seems to say yes , and points to peril fromtoo much screen time for kids , too much access to porn , andtoo much idiot box can stand for too much unhealthy eating . We might want to just chill once in a while . Read a book . Go for a leisurely promenade around a museum . Take part in a morsel of quiet , thoughtful one - on - one conversation .
capture a handle on our media dependence is the end of the medium pyramid , a construct from Faris Yakob , that 39 - year - old London - pay digital communications strategist we mention earlier . He also is founding father , along with wife Rosie Yakob , of the consulting firmGenius Steals . The Yakobs , base in Nashville , Tennessee , crisscross the globe work with company on improving their stigmatization through social channels , unique advertising concepts … all sorts of metier .
Faris roll out the first reading of his pyramid on Medium in a post title , " You are The Media You Eat . "
" We do n’t empathise abundance well , " Faris aver . " Clay Shirky[an NYU professor and author who has written extensively on the internet and societal media ] said ' Abundance fall in more things than scarcity . ' We tend to , in lots of field of study , exhaust more and less well when we ’re exposed to larger sum of nutrient , and larger portions , and large potpourri . "
The problem with both food and media is not simply a matter of weighing machine , though . The problem is that many of us flip those pyramids upside down and gorge on that bad - for - you hooey at the top .
" We lean to eat the easiest most sugar - salty - fat things , if give the sort of non - witting choice , " Faris say .
Junk nutrient . Junk medium .
The Media Pyramid
In its current iteration — " ( Why We Like Things That Are high-risk For Us " just posted March 19 ) — the pyramid write out what mass medium is good and bad for you by placing them on six different stratum . The aforesaid good clobber sits at the bottom , on the " actualisation " level ; things like art and music andtheaterand recital . The regretful media — like , say , InfoWars ( link by design not being provide ) — is in that tiny lilliputian spot at the top , labeled " Info - Toxic - ation , " where lies and falsehoods live .
The musical theme is to pass more of your media - consumption meter on the bottom , with raid as require or as desired into other levels ( and avoid those at the top ) .
Faris cook a few interesting suggestions throughout the pyramid :
Media Literacy 101
In his second running play at the pyramid , Faris also pertain on news medium prejudice and how to differentiate the real from the fake , the slanted from the straight - up . " It ’s sort of the 101 of medium literacy . The first affair you do , " he says , " is search to the informant . Who write this patch ? Who is this medium owned by ? What ’s their business organisation role model ? What ’s the political orientation it be given to have ? And then , how open are they to being fact - check , to share cognition ? How willing are they to allow mistakes ? "
It should be point out that those who measure medium consumption do it in unlike agency . Some research counts that hour you spend catch idiot box and look at your smartphone at the same time as two hours , one on each of the screens . Still , whatever we spend , " to me , it seems like too much , " Faris says .
The main takeout food from Faris ' experiment , though , is what you consume count more than how much you consume . Ten hour a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. dealing with trolls on Twitter does you more damage than 10 hours staring down a Monet at the Met .
" The pyramid ’s just an endeavor to get down a conversation that tell perhaps we should be more aware about our attention and how we apportion it . Otherwise , somebody else will do it for you , " Faris say . " We ’re all part of this treatment because we ask to sort of aid ourselves be aware , because we ’re make believe ourselves poorly . "
