In his new book The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption*, Clay Johnson compels us to address unhealthy information consumption habits that are slowing down our productivity, efficiency, personal health, and the health of society. With the Information Diet framework presented in the book, readers can learn how to consume information in a healthy way. The book also walks the reader through the role of information throughout history, showing why this diet is so necessary in today’s environment of perpetual connectedness.

“Industrialization has changed the way that we eat. It’s lead to the miracle of cheap and abundant calories, but it’s also been the root cause of an ever expanding obesity epidemic,” explains Johnson. “In the same way that technology has changed the way that we learn, but with the miracle of cheap and abundant information comes a brand new set of problems.” These problems are labeled “information overconsumption,” and can be physical, psychological, and social. Physical affects such as hypertension, sedentary death syndrome, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease can all be linked to a person spending too much time in front of their computer reading news articles, Tweeting, perusing blogs, or watching television. Psychological problems such as a distorted sense of time, shallow social relationships, reality dysmorphia, and screen addiction can also stem from overconsumption over long periods of time.

What does an Information Diet entail? Unplugging and throwing out your computer is not the answer. “Unplugging, ‘internet sabbaticals,’ ‘social media vacations,’ and ‘email bankruptcies’ are all ways to avoid the real problem: our own bad habits. Ask any nutritionist, and they’ll tell you that a diet isn’t about not eating -- it’s about changing your consumption habits.” The Information Diet should be treated like a food diet: “Our minds, just like our food palates, have different and unique tastes. Building a healthy information diet means discovering what works best for you, and creating a routine you can stick to.”

In addition to the book, the website has a designated section with Resources for a Healthy Information Diet for those who want to start a conversation about curbing their information consumption habits. There are specific tools to help you out along the way, and a blog to keep you on track and in touch (but hopefully not too in touch, you’re supposed to be on a diet!). Users can also sign up to make the Information Diet part of their New Years resolutions, ensuring they keep up with their diet and don’t end up pigging out!

Clay Johnson is a co-founder of Blue State Digital, the firm responsible for building and managing President Obama’s online campaign in 2008. After leaving Blue State, he was the director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation, where he led 2000 developers and designers to build open source tools that give people greater access to government data. He was the recipient of the Google/O’Reilly Open Source Organizer of the year award in 2009, and was one of the Federal Computing Week’s Fed 100 in 2010. Most recently he won the CampaignTech Innovator award in 2011.

The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption is available for pre-order now.

* Fission is proud to have worked with Clay Johnson to design and develop InformationDiet.com.