In the summer of 1978, I was new to America, an immigrant (of sorts, though my mom was/is an American citizen), and about to enter third grade. The local library had a kids reading club themed around Star Wars. So you know it had to be 1978 (or any year thereafter). A kid had an X-wing mobile from which images of various characters would be hung as one read up to ten books that summer. I read over 100 or something stupid, including the novelization of the film since I hadn’t seen it.

My media diet in 1978 was basically “free” stuff: many books, broadcast TV (CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, and two local NYC broadcasters), and AM/FM radio. I remember listening to Phil Rizzuto et al on my clock radio. The Yankees won the World Series in 1978 (and then not again for 18 years). We didn’t have an Atari or HBO, but I knew people. In short, I’d characterize my experience as a fairly standard, if bookish, version of what you might imagine a lower middle class white kid’s media diet might have been like 50 years ago (gulp). But if you subtracted reading books from the list then you’d have to say my experience with media was probably a couple hours at night watching tv (probably M*A*S*H) or listening to the Yankees.

I guess something like that might serve as my personal conceptual starting point for what media does and is like. What does that look like for an elementary school kid today? Or a teen, which is where we tend to focus? When I was a teen you could add a walkman, music videos, and comic books to that list (and subtract radio… we moved). Later CDs and cable TV. But still, not all that different from 1978 compared to what was to come.

But think how different 2025 is to 2018. Ugh. Media diets are timed ideas (and not just anagrammatically).

Today, my digital media diet includes music, audiobooks, and podcasts; streamed live soccer matches; necessary mediated social functions (e.g., online shopping); and work-related activities. Putting these things together I live in a near-perpetual, negotiated mediascape. We know these this about ourselves. This is why we talk about going on media fasts or media diets. Perhaps that’s a “timed idea” as well, as in limiting or curating media time.

And note that I don’t do social media… not anymore. God help anyone caught up in that necropolitical pyramid scheme!

All this circulation, production, reaction feeds the machine the data requires. I may not write a new song today but the simple fact that I listened to a bunch that it served up from a negotiated list is enough of a contribution from me.

Keep in mind that when we are talking about media diets it’s not only what we feed on but what feeds upon us.