The Information Diet

Part III. Social Obesity

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

—Thomas Jefferson, to Charles Yancey 1816^[86]

When we start looking at information consumption through the lens of a diet and take responsibility for the information we’re consuming, things start to get really frightening. Poor information diets and poor filters are responsible for really atrocious things and have horrible social effects that are, as history suggests, as deadly as the worst of our diseases.

Physical obesity, it turns out, may be a social contagion. Some studies suggest, for instance, that introducing an obese person into your social circle may put you at risk for obesity. It’s not hard science, and there is disagreement—the counterargument to these studies is that we tend to homogenize in groups, so people who are already obese may just associate with one another, and reinforce one another’s bad eating habits.^[87]

Regardless of causality, this trend is something we recognize from common sense: hang out with people living healthy lifestyles, and chances are you’ll be exposed to more stuff that’s good for you and less stuff that’s bad for you. If all your friends are alcoholics, it makes it more difficult for you to quit drinking. Because our consumption of food is tangentially social, those with whom we choose to associate affect our intake.

Information is far more social than food. You can grow your own food, and eat by yourself ...