The Content Diet: A Guide to Consuming Less and Better Online

From the author who coined the term "sober curious" and helped to change the way we drink, The Content Diet offers a new approach to internet and tech addiction—one that is rooted not in abstinence, but in more conscious content consumption.

"Does for screen time what 'sober curious' did for drinking. A necessary conversation starter for our digital wellbeing." —Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, MD, psychiatrist and bestselling author of Real Self Care

They say "you are what you eat"—but what about the impact of what we consume with our eyes, ears, and minds every time we go online?

This is the question journalist Ruby Warrington asks in The Content Diet, in which she outlines her framework for a healthier relationship to both our phones and the content we use them to consume. Instead of physical nutrients, imagine that your Content Diet is where you get your psychological nutrients—digital vitamins that feed your imagination, your awareness, your resilience, your self-esteem—or not. Much of what we consume online is packed full of "content additives" (think: like buttons, algorithms, and clickbait headlines) to make it as addicting as possible. At its most extreme, the brain rot and the rage-bait this helps propagate is poison, to individuals, and to society.

When you start to think about your Content Diet in this way, a healthier path forward is quickly revealed. A message that is right on time. "Brain-rot” was named Oxford’s Word of the Year 2024 and searches for “how to delete Instagram” are spiking. And yet, for most of us, the solution can’t be total digital abstinence. We want to stay informed, connected, and inspired—without feeling enraged, empty, and overstimulated. The Content Diet offers a way to do exactly that: guiding you to completely reframe your relationship to what you consume online, without asking you to log off completely.

For readers of Stolen Focus, The Siren's Call, and How to Break Up with Your Phone, The Content Diet is intentionally structured over 157 micro-chapters to cater to modern attention spans. The result is an informative, practical, and accessible guide that will help end the loop of doomscrolling—as you become more intentional with your time, mental health, and overall well-being, both online and in real life.