How To Better Consume Media This Year
Have you had enough of screens, algorithms and data mining? Me too
2025 is the year I’m taking myself out of the digital sphere as much as possible in the way I consume media. Instead of feeding algorithms and screen times here’s what I’m doing this year.
1. Physsical Magazines
It was a sunny day in San Diego 4 years ago when I was visiting my now ex and we were at Sprouts (a grocery store in the U.S) getting some food, when suddenly at the register I noticed a colorful magazine that totally caught my attention and decided to purchase a copy, it was an art and design publication called Origin Magazine. The ex said “wow I haven’t purchased a magazine probably in over a decade”.
Since then my old love for magazines –that originated in my childhood and teen years– came back to life, I started getting every now and then a copy of Vogue, GQ or ELLE. At first I simply flipped through them because what interested me the most was the photos (I’m a photographer), but the latest ones I’ve gotten I read them almost entirely and until then I had forgotten how fun it is to buy them and read them.
Whether you like to consume fashion, lifestyle, travel or business content, or others, magazines are a great way to enjoy these while staying away from screens, picture yourself: you make a coffee at home, sit on the living room wearing your fave comfy clothes and turning the pages of your favorite magazine, sounds nice right? Here’s to a year of starting your own mag collection.
2. Music
2 years ago I posted a video on YouTube that got me lots of views in a span of a week and did way better than others I’ve shared, it was titled “Why I Still Use an iPod in 2023”. People –mostly men for some reason– commented saying that they agreed with the points mentioned (if you want to check it out here’s the link).
I’ve seen a good deal of complaints on X and TikTok about the Spotify algorithm creating “discovery” playlists with music already saved in user’s libraries and shuffling the same like 15 songs over and over again, and that’s only one fragment of what’s wrong with music platforms. If you think about it, doesn’t is scare you that these streaming platforms –particularly music ones– have perfectly profiled us to know exactly what kind of music we like, who do we listen to, and for how long? I mean, of course social media has done the same, but this is music we’re talking about, the depths of ourselves and our authentic taste. AND like the tweet above says, how do we know they’re not molding our personal music tastes?
Now, you’re probably wondering “but Sabrina, how can I listen to music if it’s not through streaming platforms?” well dear reader, if you want to start owning your songs and not renting them you can do what we used to in the good old days when we had to buy each song on iTunes, except now it’s easier because it goes straight to your device -if you use iOS of course– and it’s still just within a touch’s reach. Or if you want to take it all the way you can also get CD’s and a discman, or an iPod; I have the latter one and having a dedicated music device is so cool because I’m just focused on the music, and to be honest the sound is way better there than on my phone.
If you want to hear more reasons why iPods are cool here’s my own YouTube video explaining.
2. Newspapers
My take on newspaper is essentially the same as with magazines, but I’d say getting a newspaper all week long or every now and then is only worthy and applies mostly to people in big cities where newspapers feature valuable, varied and interesting news. Getting your news straight from the OG source –paper– gives that je ne sais quoi feel, I guess you could say that it’s the analog feel that many of us seem to miss and crave probably due do all the the new and fast-evolving tech gadgets.
And if you think about it, how many people would be unemployed if this kind of media was vanished from our physical world? I know print media sales have drastically fallen ever since the internet took over our lives, but there are still people out there who work passionately so we can read articles, essays and more in paper and those who buy them and don’t want to consume everything through a glass panel with blue light. I believe it’s important to preserve our old media sources.
3. Books
For a while I was obsessed and indecisive about getting a Kindle, because I don’t know about you, but suddenly I started seeing them EVERYWHERE on social media (great free marketing right?), but even though a part of me is slightly tempted I don’t want to cave, why? Because physical books are superior in my opinion.
I get the practical side of an E-reader or iPad, but as someone who does all her work in front of screens it feels really good to grab my paperback, sit down under the sun and enjoy the story I’m reading in paper. Also, I look forward to living in my own house and having a huuuuge home library.
That’s It For Now
I’m a fan of analog and old aka dumb tech so you can expect articles where I’ll share my takes on certain Y2K items that I’m planning to bring back into my life to decrease my screen and digital time.