What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism.
Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death
Heard this quote while listening to Tim Ferriss’ podcast episode with Tristan Harris, a design ethicist. I believe this is the story of our time.
One way to control people and limit their ability to think freely is to limit their information intake. The other is to pump excess information into the world in a way that feels good, thus distracting us from having our own thoughts.
We are constantly on autopilot. We need to take control of our thoughts and beliefs instead of leaving them up to an algorithm.
Be careful about the way in which you consume media. Make it harder to click into apps that have infinite scroll. Delete social media from your homescreen, or from your phone entirely. Set aside a time to check your messages once per day. Go into do not disturb mode.
While you experiment with these tactics that limit unintentional information consumption, go out of your way to consume what is interesting to you. Download a history podcast. Read an article in Pocket. Pick up a book. And please please please, write.
Put your thoughts into words. Have opinions and perspectives. Share them with the world. Having a point of view is how you manifest your ability to think freely.
Never give up your freedom to think.