38 ways to create more than you consume, while you consume
a practical guide to slow media consumption
I’m Tuğba, a Greek-Turkish artist living in Berlin - as slow as possible is a newsletter exploring the in-between spaces of our lives that we see but often do not notice. Interested in reading more of my work?
I’m guilty. Guilty, like everyone else, of consuming way too much.
The irony hasn’t escaped me that this newsletter is called as slow as possible. Most days I consume as fast as possible and as much as possible. Like a greedy person, I consume and consume, trying to fill the hunger for more knowledge, to satisfy my curiosity. Every day feels like a bottomless brunch with our smartphones and the endless possibilities of the World Wide Web.
Byung-Chul Han writes in Non-Things:
“We are literally becoming intoxicated with communication… The result is infomania. We are all infomaniacs now. Object fetishism is probably a thing of the past. We are becoming information and data fetishists.”
Yup. I can definitely see myself in his words.
When everything is available at our fingertips, there is no longer a natural stopping point. A friend once told me dogs don’t feel full, so they can eat themselves to death. We may not consume ourselves to death, but we are definitely consuming ourselves to exhaustion.
I have days when I lie in bed and my body feels completely detached from my mind. It’s hard to describe. My thoughts won’t stop racing, and no matter how hard I try to bring my attention back to my body, there is a disconnect. Usually, I know what it means: I went overboard with consuming that day. And, of course, it doesn’t help that I work in tech and sit eight hours on my laptop.
A couple of years ago, I read a study1 done by Professor Martin Hilbert (University of Southern California) using a newspaper analogy. If one newspaper has 85 pages, he estimated that in 1986, people received the equivalent of 55 newspapers’ worth of information per day. By 2007, that number had jumped to 175 newspapers. That’s 14,875 pages a day.
And that was 2007, nearly two decades ago.
I dug further. I found a scientific article2 by Sabine Heim and Andreas Keil, both neuroscientists, from 2017 (still pre-pandemic) claiming the average person processes around 74GB of information a day; that’s comparable to watching 16 movies daily. It also suggested this was increasing by around 5% per year, and that 500 years ago, 74GB would have been what a highly educated person consumed in a lifetime. Yes, a lifetime!
When I tried to find more recent data, post-pandemic, the irony is that a lot of it is presented as “online hours”. Statista reported that by the end of 2024, we had spent 6 hours and 38 minutes online daily. Between that and offline consumption, we consume most of our waking hours.
Anyhow, enough data. You get the point. Things are out of control.
I’ve written a lot in this newsletter about how our attention is fried. If you are interested in reading more, see here, here, here, and here.
Byung-Chul Han writes:
“Today, we pursue information without gaining knowledge. We take notice of everything without gaining any insight… We accumulate ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ without meeting Other. In this way, information develops a form of life that has no stability or duration.”
The pivot
At the beginning of the year, I thought: “Enough is enough. I can’t eat a bottomless brunch every day, can I?”
And in all honesty, I no longer want to.
Because I’m realising that consuming more knowledge doesn’t equate to more knowledge. I can barely remember what I read last month, even full books, let alone the endless stream of articles and posts.
So, this year, I’m adopting the mantra as slow as possible for my media consumption too. Consider this my slow media era. Every now and then, I’ll share a few things I consumed slowly, how I did it, what it taught me, and what it made me notice in my real life.
The main rule is:
Create more than you consume while you consume.
Shift from passive consumption to actively engaging your mind.
Big disclaimer: I’m not doing this with everything I consume. I pick and choose from the list, and I try to do it several times a week. In my next Slow Media Pick post, I’ll share what I have consumed slowly, the rules I use, and what I have learned.
Ok. Here’s my pick-and-choose list. 38 ways to consume slow media.
reading
Read a book slowly, one chapter a day, as a long-term slow reading project. Treat it like a conversation. This is especially helpful for non-fiction and classics. I annotate, highlight quotes, jot down reflections, and look up words. I’ve even bought a pocket dictionary so I don’t end up “just quickly” looking something up on my phone.
Read one big book slowly across the year. This year, I want to read War and Peace that way. Not as an achievement, more like a companionship. There is even a slow reading book club on Substack to read classics. You can use them as inspiration, even if you don’t participate.
Reread a book you loved years ago, then write how your perspective on the book has changed since then. I’ve planned to do this for ages, but the constant flood of newness keeps winning.
Keep a quote archive in your journal or on index cards. Put one quote on the right-hand page and your reflections on the left-hand page. Why did it touch you? What does it connect to? What do you disagree with? It’s essentially training your critical thinking.
Extract one claim from an essay and test it against your life. This is especially relevant for self-help media. We rush through self-help media, then wonder why nothing changes. We need time to adopt new habits and approaches to life.
Find one point you disagree with, and write your counterargument. This again forces you to think critically and deepen your analysis of issues.
After finishing, close the book or tab you were looking at and write what you remember from memory. Even one A5 page forces you to reflect and be more intentional.
Write a short letter to an author, but never send it.
Reread the last paragraph you read before continuing reading the book.
One-tab rule for online essays: Finish the piece first, close the tab, and only then continue the research rabbit hole.
De-socialise your reading goals. This one surprised me. I used Goodreads for years because I like tracking what I read, but the social aspect made me rush through books and avoid big books without even realising it, especially after autumn, when I knew I was behind my annual goal. I’ve switched to StoryGraph because it feels less performative. I’m using it simply to track my books without the pressure of being seen. I’m also not avoiding rereading anymore. Bonus: It is woman-owned and not owned by Amazon like Goodreads.
movies and youtube
One film, no phone. Treat your home like a cinema. Harder than it sounds.
Watch YouTube with full focus, no eating, no second screen. And most importantly, single-tab watching: one tab only until the video is finished.
Watch and take notes: Pause at the most resonant moment, write a paragraph, then continue. If I can’t copy the quote because it is harder to follow on video, I write the idea and my response.
Watch, then summarise from memory before rechecking anything. Write my reflections in my A5 journal.
Rewatch a single scene and study it like a photograph.
Post-film quiet: Sit for two minutes after the film ends before you touch your phone.
Film journal: Three lines — what moved me, what annoyed me, what it revealed.
One episode a day: Slow serial watching instead of bingeing several episodes in a day.
Rewatch an old favourite and write what it means to you now, not then.
podcasts and audiobooks
No multitasking, just listening. Sometimes, I lie on the sofa or bed and do nothing else. No walking, no eating, no chores. Full focus.
When something lands, pause the audio and write one reflection, even a few lines, then continue.
Take two minutes of silence after an episode; let it settle.
Extract one idea at the end, and write how you’ll test it this week (if it is more of an educational podcast).
music
Active album listening: Start to finish, no skipping, no multitasking. We used to do this with cassettes and CDs. Playlists changed that. I’m changing it back. If I like one track, I go to the album and listen properly to all the tracks in order.
Listen to one song on repeat 5 to 10 times. Notice what changes with familiarity.
Write one paragraph after listening: What did this do to my inner world? Emotion, memory, longing.
Listen in the dark: Remove visuals. Let sound become the whole room. An eye mask, closed eyes, whatever works. It’s wild how much more you hear when you turn your vision off.
art, exhibitions, museums
Visit an exhibition slowly: One room only, or pick 3 to 4 pieces and leave before you’re tired. I often go back a second time. I focus on colours, materials, what it evokes in me.
Return to the same artwork twice, and notice what changes on the second visit.
Choose one artwork and spend 2 to 5 minutes with it, timer on.
Describe before interpreting: list five factual details before meaning.
Title it yourself before reading the real title.
Notice the space itself: Walls, lighting, textures, architecture. I love doing this at the Tate Modern. One afternoon, I just looked at the textures and structure of the walls downstairs. Mind-blowing. Many museums are in historical buildings, and lots of them have free areas you can hang out in without paying for the entrance.
Treat a photograph like a scene: Study the background, not the subject.
across everything
36. Consume something together with a friend or partner, then discuss. Could be a YouTube video, a film, an essay, anything… Think book clubs, but expanded.
37. Cross-create your media: Respond to one medium using another. Read a chapter, then make a collage. Listen to an album, then paint an abstract drawing. Watch a film, then take five photos that capture its atmosphere. Translation is a form of attention.
38. Recovery day: After finishing an intense book or a very emotional movie or series, take one full day off from starting something new. Let it settle. Let your mind catch up with what it just experienced.
I’m sure I’ll think of more over time, but this list should be enough to get started. Some of these I’ve already tried, and I’ll experiment more in the coming months.
I’d love you to join in, experiment with me, and share some of your own slow media favourites too.
Question for you
If you try just one rule this week, which one will it be?
Take care,
Your friend, Tuğba
welcome to the Slow Media Club - are you in?
The Slow Media Club is a community where we’ll experiment together to create more than we consume, while we consume.
A comment, a restack, or sharing it with a friend is one of the simplest and most generous ways to support creative work right now. It takes a moment, but it makes a real difference.
If you want a glimpse into my little experiments lately, here’s my first round-up of things I tried:
Martin Hilbert, “How Much Information Is There in the ‘Information Society’?”, Significance, 2012
Heim, S., and Keil, A., “Too Much Information, Too Little Time: How the Brain Separates Important from Unimportant Things in Our Fast-Paced Media World,” Frontiers for Young Minds, 2017
This is exactly what I was pondering about during my recent holidays.
Thank you!
I’d like to read the book A little life by Yanagihara and take my time with it, also because it’s a thicker one and I keep postponing
Last year I read 01 Elif Shafak novel over 12 months. I have started practicing slow media and information consumption. We are both in this together, Tugbä 😊 We got this. All the best.