Media Archives - Sustainable Sue

Episode 23: Managing Media with an Eye Toward Sustainability

This week’s focus is the impact of media on your personal productivity. Media is a component of the Environmental Surroundings dimension along with clutter. Basically all the inputs that are physically and virtually in your environment – news, movies, books, TV, podcasts, social media, and magazines that you take in on a daily basis. Learn from Jose Ortega y Gassett: “Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.”

Ignoring media altogether is not sustainable – there are productivity gains to be had from its consumption. But you need to understand what is coming in and what it is doing to your productivity in the long run.

Here is what you can expect in this episode:

Learn what science shows is the impact of media in your body at a cellular level.
Recommended ceilings of time to consume on various types of media – think Food Guide Pyramid of media.
Practical suggestions to make media work for you, not against you.

The Media Pyramid as described in the episode. Read the full article by Faris Yakob at this link.

Listen at the link below or search for “Sustainable Productivity with Susan Sanders” everywhere podcasts are available.

Links to Learn More

Links mentioned in this episode of the Sustainable Productivity podcast:

Sign up for episode emails, weekly essays, and links so you never miss a thing!
Read more on the psychological impact of negative TV news at this link
Here is a link to the article about depression and social media use
Revisit what cortisol does to your body in Episode 1: Stress, Evolution, and Burnout by clicking here
Get your copy of the Sustainable You time tracker here

We would love to hear from you. Send your feedback on the episode, suggestions for future show topics or guests, and anything else to Susan@SustainableSue.com or in a DM on Instagram.

Your Diet is More Than What You Eat

I think we all agree that it is important to consume healthy food to have a healthy life, but your diet is more than what you eat. Let’s look at how what we consume can impact whether or not we have healthy relationships.

Similar to the way nutrients from food fuel your body’s functions, the messages from the media and people you surround yourself with fuel your mental, emotional, and spiritual functions. Here are three examples, plus some questions to ask yourself to see if you might need to make some adjustments in your consumption.

Social media

Your diet is more than what you eat – it is the media you consume. Social media is the first part. Many studies have explored whether more frequent use of social media is associated with various mental health concerns, including depression, body image concerns / disordered eating, and externalizing problems. Reportedly almost half of teens admitted to using their mobile device within five minutes of going to sleep, and 36% report checking their devices at least once in the middle of the night. This does not lead to productive sleep.

Adults are not much better – when is the last time you went more than an hour without checking your device? Do you pick up your phone to greet the day before greeting your spouse? This pattern is not sustainable.

Healthy relationships are a component of Mental Well-being, a pillar of Sustainable Productivity. Connection is a key to healthy relationships and you cannot connect if you are buried in your device. Look up, look around, look your friends and family in the eye and have a conversation. You might be surprised at what you find and how things improve.

Regular media

The second part is traditional media. Network and cable TV, podcasts, radio shows, streaming services, newspapers, tabloid magazine… not to mention the “news” channels. The amount of media content today is staggering. We complain about not having time for hobbies, self-care, or other priorities and healthy habits, yet we do seem to have time to spend on media. Especially as we age. The average American watches almost 4 1/2 hours of TV each day. This almost doubles in the 65+ age range.

too much TV can have a negative impact on healthy relationships

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by-us-adults/

Are you spending 270 minutes each day watching content that feeds your soul? Is that sustainable for you? Are you satisfied with how much media you are consuming in a day? How does that impact your mental health?

It might be time to make a list of what you could do instead. Read, sports/exercise, craft, garden, take online lectures or see what your library offers, organize your home, play games/cards – the list is really endless. Start with a literal list on paper (or your phone or computer) of a few ideas. As you hear about interesting classes / concerts / ideas – jot them down. You can create a menu of choices to pick from when you feel yourself turning to the TV.

People

Your diet is more than what you eat – it is who you spend your time with. As mentioned before, healthy relationships are a component of Mental Well-being, a pillar of Sustainable Productivity. But let me give you some tough love – some people in your world are energy vampires. There are other people you spend time with because you feel like you should, or you always have. It doesn’t have to be like that. If the people in your life are not feeding your soul, consider why it is that you feel you need to continue spending time with that person.

Do you feel drained when you come home from spending time with a certain person? Are there relationships where you feel like you are making more of an effort than the other person? During quarantine, have you been relieved you have not had to interact with certain people?

It might be time to let these relationships go. Different relationships are in our lives for different seasons. If the season has ended consider if this is time to move on.

What small adjustment are you willing to make today related to consumption?

Sources:

McCrae N, Gettings S, Purssell E. Social media and depressive symptoms in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review. Ado-lesc Res Rev. 2017;2(4):315-330. 12.

Holland G, Tiggemann M. A systematic review of the impact of the use of social networking sites on body image and disordered eating outcomes. Body Image. 2016;17:100-110. doi: 10.1016/j.body-im.2016.02.008

Rideout V, Robb MB. Social Media, Social Life. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media; 2018. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/2018_cs_socialmedia-sociallife_executivesummary-final-release_3_lowres.pdf. Published 2018.