Going on an information diet

Every now and then, I wonder what kind of balance I should draw between consuming content online and producing it. Between having new information pushed at me via Google Reader or Twitter, for example, and pulling information that I need via searches. Between spending time looking at a screen and spending time looking at stuff that has mass and takes up space.

During the summer, the balance definitely shifts toward spending time away from screens, and that’s a good thing. Michigan winters are entirely too long, even for me, a Michigan native. I want to take advantage of the summer, so much of my time not spent working is spent doing things away from the screen. This year, I’ve been having a good time riding my bike with my daughter on her new Burley Kazoo Trailercycle.

For the next month, I want to try an experiment that I haven’t tried in a long time and that is to go on a serious information diet. For a month, I’m swearing off Google Reader, Twitter, Hacker News, etc. I’ll still post to Twitter and watch for Twitter mentions and DMs, but I’m not going to follow the random links that appear there.

Doing this will eliminate a source of randomness in my thoughts, and I’m curious to see whether or not I’ll miss it. Will I miss finding out about the latest Snow Leopard seeds, or technical indicators of how crappy the economy is? By stripping down my inputs, I’ll find out.

I’m pretty sure that I’ll miss some of the news I get. The real trick, I think, is that I want better filters. Maybe over the next month I’ll discover how to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. I’m certain that the answer to that is not more Digg.