Preserving a thought from the 13 August 2023 edition of my newsletter:
I feel like the term “media diet” just reinforces the current “content consumers” label for people who like to experience arts. “Content consumers” just summons the image of a trough full of gruel. Also, calling you a “content consumer” gives you a good idea of what they really think of you.
I’ve been on the whole “content” thing on and off in the newsletter for a couple years. It’s a term borrowed from the early web. Literally describing whatever has been wrapped in HTML and linked to. I recall Clay Shirky once saying somewhere, “it’s not content until it’s linked to,” and Susannah Breslin going off at him at some length about that.
I’ve used the term “media diet” for many years and I would like to retire it. I don’t like it any more.
