…And Watch, And Listen To.
January by tradition is the month for re-birth. De-toxing, re-inventing oneself, making promises to be different and do things differently going forward – attempting to make up for the inevitable excesses of the previous month. Doomed exercise regimes are undertaken, diets composed, juicers and exercise dvds are purchased (guilty on the last one) for this period of reinvention as the New Year’s Resolutions lists are made. At this point adverts and articles often throw round variations on the phrase ‘you are what you eat’, most likely in order to promote a health product of some sort. Of course it’s true, it makes total sense that what you put into your body is going to affect you but what about everything you surround yourself with, doesn’t that affect things too?
Now I’m not suggesting that watching Enders is going to turn you into a fake Cockney, or being glued to Celebrity Big Brother is going to result in you reciting every move you make with a dubious Geordie narration but I do think it must have an effect on our brains and energy levels watching constant cr*p, along with reading it and listening to it. Bathing in the shallow end can be delicious but not if you never venture out of it and you become incapable of constructing a sentence anymore because you've fried all your braincells. It just occurred to me that while I adore pop culture, the volume on my quality control needs to be turned up. My vocabulary is not great, my spelling & grammar has definitely deteriorated, my knowledge of current affairs is alright but not amazing and as for the hot air I constantly flick in and out of on Twitter and Facebook for – surely it’s killing brain cells?
The solution? Well like any diet – I figure the solution is balance and moderation. I reckon I cut down on social networking dramatically like you’d cut out the carbs, instead of fruit & veg – I get my nose in some quality fiction and watching the odd arthouse movie that isn’t drenched in product placement and if I must watch Enders and Ugly Betty, then I have to watch Question Time and the odd natural history documentary now and again. With a bit of luck, it'll last longer than the average crash diet but no promises…
