What You Watch, Read, and Listen To Matters More Than You Think

Most of us think quite carefully about what we put into our bodies, yet we rarely give the same attention to what we repeatedly put into our minds.

You can wake up, reach for your phone, read about a disaster, watch several upsetting videos, listen to music that matches whatever mood you’re already in, spend your lunch break scrolling through things you’ll forget ten minutes later and then finish the evening watching something else simply because it appeared in front of you. None of those individual things necessarily causes a problem. When you put an entire day of consumption together, though, I think it’s worth asking what kind of mental environment you’ve been living in.

I’m not suggesting we should avoid anything difficult, pretend bad things aren’t happening or spend our lives consuming inspirational content, because that would be another extreme. I think the more useful point is much simpler. If most of what enters your attention is chosen for you, it’s worth occasionally choosing something yourself.

Notice when entertainment starts to become hours of automatic consumption that gives you very little in return.

What You Consume Becomes Part of Your Day

When we talk about consumption, we usually think about food, although our attention is taking things in almost constantly as well. We watch, listen, read, scroll, search and absorb information from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep.

Some of it matters, some of it entertains us and some of it helps us understand the world. A surprising amount of it simply occupies whatever empty space happened to appear. That distinction is worth noticing because your mind doesn’t experience content as though it exists somewhere outside your life. If something frightens you, interests you, angers you or makes you laugh, you’ve had an experience in response to it.

Negative news, for example, can affect the way people feel, particularly when they’re repeatedly exposed to upsetting stories. That doesn’t mean we should stop following the news. It simply reminds us that information can affect the person receiving it.

A useful place to start is simply noticing what repeatedly gets your attention:

• What do you watch first thing in the morning?
• What appears most often in your social feeds?
• What do you listen to when you’re already feeling low?
• How much of what you consume did you actually choose?
• How much of it gives you anything once it’s finished?

You don’t need to judge the answers. Becoming aware of them is enough to begin seeing the pattern.

Starting the Day With Everything That’s Wrong

One habit I’ve always found interesting is how quickly we can invite the entire world into our minds after waking up. You can be lying in bed, having barely opened your eyes, and within minutes you know about a war, political conflict, economic uncertainty, a violent crime, a natural disaster and several things people are angry about online.

The events are real and sometimes important to know about, but your nervous system and mind don’t necessarily need every one of them before you’ve even got out of bed. I used to describe some news reporting as having a “low vibrational” quality. I think there’s a clearer way to explain what I mean.

It isn’t that newsreaders are broadcasting some harmful frequency, and I don’t think the people reporting difficult events are doing anything wrong. Serious news naturally involves serious subjects, language, imagery and tone. When you repeatedly expose yourself to distressing information, particularly when you’re already stressed or anxious, it can become part of the emotional context from which you experience the rest of your day.

The answer isn’t ignorance. You can stay informed without allowing upsetting information to become the first thing your mind receives every morning and the last thing it receives every night.

Your Music Is Part of Your Environment as Well

Music is another interesting example because we often think we’re simply listening to a song, while our experience of music is much richer than the words alone.

Lyrics obviously matter. If you repeatedly listen to songs about anger, rejection, hopelessness, violence, confidence, love or possibility, you’re repeatedly hearing those ideas expressed in emotionally powerful ways. That doesn’t mean listening to a sad song makes you depressed or listening to a happy song makes you happy. People often deliberately listen to music that reflects how they already feel, and sometimes that can be comforting.

There’s also more happening musically than lyrics. Tempo, rhythm, harmony, melody, key, frequency and resonance can all contribute to the way a piece of music feels. Sustained low frequencies can feel physically and emotionally different from lighter or higher-frequency sounds, particularly when they’re prominent or repetitive. I don’t think it makes sense to label one specific frequency as universally good or bad, though, because our experience of music also comes from memory, association, preference, volume, environment and the state we’re already in.

I think the more interesting question is what you notice in yourself. If you’re already feeling angry, does the music you choose keep you there for longer? When you’re feeling low, do you repeatedly reach for something that deepens the same mood? Does certain music make you feel calmer, more alert, heavier or more reflective? Your reaction matters more than trying to create universal rules about which songs or frequencies people should listen to.

Sometimes We Consume Whatever Matches Us

There’s something underneath this that I think is easy to miss: we don’t always consume content randomly. Sometimes we choose things that match the state we’re already in.

When you’re anxious, you may search for more information because uncertainty feels uncomfortable. When you’re angry, you might notice content that confirms what you’re angry about. When you’re feeling low, certain music, videos or conversations can feel strangely familiar because they reflect your current experience. That familiarity can make the content feel right in the moment even if it leaves you feeling exactly the same afterwards.

This doesn’t mean the content caused your emotional state, because sometimes it simply met you there. If we repeatedly consume things that reinforce the same thoughts, feelings and interpretations, though, we may give ourselves very little opportunity to experience anything outside them. That’s one reason I think deliberately consuming something different can sometimes be useful.

Positive Doesn’t Have to Mean Inspirational

“Consume something positive” can easily sound like advice to watch motivational podcasts, repeat affirmations and avoid anything uncomfortable, but that isn’t what I mean. Positive can simply mean that something gives you something useful.

It might teach you something, help you understand yourself, introduce you to an idea you hadn’t considered, make you genuinely laugh, calm you down, deepen your knowledge or leave you thinking differently afterwards.

A useful hour of consumption might include:

• Listening to somebody explain a subject you’re curious about.
• Reading about something you’ve always wanted to understand.
• Watching a thoughtful conversation rather than another stream of short clips.
• Learning a practical skill.
• Exploring a psychological idea that helps you understand yourself.
• Listening to music because you’ve noticed how it makes you feel rather than simply because an algorithm served it to you.

That’s very different from insisting everything has to be educational. Sometimes you need entertainment precisely because you don’t want to learn anything for an hour.

Not Everything Has to Provide Value

I also don’t want to turn this into another argument that every second of your life needs to be productive. If you enjoy watching a cat fall out of a cardboard box on TikTok, watch the cat. It might make you laugh, and that has value of its own. You don’t need to become an animal scientist before you’re allowed to enjoy it.

The question becomes more useful when one cat video turns into forty minutes of completely forgettable content and you didn’t really choose any of it. You started with one video, the next one appeared and then another. Eventually, your attention has been occupied for almost an hour without you being able to remember much of what you watched.

The issue isn’t that the content wasn’t educational. It’s that your attention was spent without much awareness of where it went. That’s similar to the way we looked at time in the previous article. An hour doesn’t always disappear because something important took it. Sometimes it disappears because something was simply available to fill it.

Algorithms Don’t Know What You Need

Your feed is particularly interesting because it can feel incredibly personal while knowing surprisingly little about what’s actually good for you. It knows what keeps you watching.

If you stop on angry videos, it can learn that. If you repeatedly watch relationship arguments, frightening health stories, celebrity drama, political conflict or videos that make you compare yourself with other people, the system doesn’t need to understand why you stopped. It only needs to recognise that you did.

Over time, your feed can begin resembling your attention rather than your intentions. That distinction matters because what captures your attention isn’t automatically what you’d consciously choose to spend your life thinking about.

You might care deeply about your family, health, relationships, mental health, work and future, while your phone has learnt that videos of strangers arguing keep you watching for twelve seconds longer. I think we should occasionally notice that difference.

Force Yourself to Choose Something

I used the word “force” deliberately when I first thought about this idea, although I don’t mean forcing yourself through content you hate because somebody told you it’s good for you. I mean interrupting the automatic choice.

Instead of opening the same app, deliberately search for something you’ve been curious about. Instead of allowing your next video to be selected automatically, choose the next one yourself. If you normally spend your commute scrolling, listen to a conversation about something that interests you. If you’ve been thinking about your mental health, learn something about the experience you’re actually having.

The important part is that you become involved in deciding what enters your attention. You can still watch television, follow the news, listen to sad music, watch nonsense online and spend an evening doing absolutely nothing useful. I don’t think a healthy life needs to become a permanent educational programme. I do think some of what you consume should be chosen because it gives something back to you.

Notice What Remains After You Consume It

One simple way to understand your relationship with content is to notice what remains afterwards. After an hour of watching something, how do you feel? What are you thinking about? Did you learn anything? Did you enjoy yourself? Do you feel calmer, more anxious, interested, angry, energised, drained or exactly the same?

There isn’t a correct answer. Something can be valuable because it taught you something, but it can also be valuable because you laughed for twenty minutes after a difficult day. The question is whether the experience gave you what you thought it was giving you.

Sometimes we tell ourselves we’re relaxing while consuming things that leave us more tense. We tell ourselves we’re staying informed while repeatedly checking the same frightening story for an update. We might also tell ourselves we’re simply passing time, while wondering later why we never have enough time for the things we care about. Greater awareness helps us notice the difference.

You Don’t Control Everything That Enters Your Mind

None of us can completely control the information around us, and I don’t think we should try. Life includes difficult conversations, frightening news, sad music, uncomfortable ideas and things we’d rather not experience.

The point isn’t to create a perfectly positive bubble. It’s to recognise that you have at least some influence over the environment your attention spends its time in. If you’re going to spend hours every week watching, reading and listening to things anyway, it seems worth allowing some of those hours to teach you something about yourself, help you understand something you care about or simply leave you in a better state than they found you.

You don’t have to consume positivity all day. It might be enough to stop consuming everything else automatically.

FAQ

How Can the Content I Watch and Read Affect My Mental Health?

What you repeatedly watch, read and listen to becomes part of what your attention is dealing with throughout the day. Some content may leave you interested, relaxed or informed, while other content can leave you anxious, angry, overwhelmed or mentally drained. The effect won’t be identical for everybody, which is why noticing your own response matters.

Can Negative News Affect Your Mood?

It can. Repeated exposure to upsetting news can influence how people feel, although everybody responds differently depending on the content, their circumstances and how personally relevant the story feels. Staying informed and repeatedly exposing yourself to distressing information aren’t necessarily the same thing.

Does Music and Frequency Affect How You Feel?

Music can affect emotional experience through lyrics, tempo, rhythm, harmony, melody, frequency, resonance and the associations you already have with particular sounds. Lower frequencies can also feel physically different from higher ones, especially when they’re sustained or prominent. There isn’t one specific frequency that affects everybody in the same way, so the most useful thing is noticing what different music and sounds seem to do to your own state.

Should Everything I Consume Be Educational?

No. Entertainment, humour, music and doing things simply because you enjoy them can all have value. The point is to notice when entertainment stops being something you chose and becomes hours of automatic consumption that gives you very little in return.

How Can I Start Consuming More Useful Content?

You don’t need to replace everything you enjoy. Start by choosing one small part of what you already watch, read or listen to more deliberately. Research something you’ve been curious about, listen to a thoughtful conversation, learn about something you’re currently experiencing or choose music because you’ve noticed how it affects you rather than simply accepting whatever appears next.

How Do I Know Whether the Content I’m Consuming Is Helping Me?

Notice what remains afterwards. Ask yourself how you feel, what you’re thinking about, whether you learnt anything, whether you genuinely enjoyed it and whether the experience gave you what you expected from it. Something doesn’t have to be educational to be worthwhile, but it helps to recognise the difference between something you chose because you enjoy it and something that simply occupied your attention.