Dry January (Brain Rot Edition)

Taking a break from sugary dopamine hits.

January 3rd - edited to add a paragraph on why I am staying subscribed to The Criterion Channel this month.

I’m taking on Dry January: no alcohol for a month. I appreciate the practice in control, the focus on physical health, and the toying with socializing, down time, and chemical stimuli. This is not a new idea to me, nor probably you.

I am also taking on Dry January: the Brain Rot Edition. I am making this up as I write, from gate C18 of Milwaukee airport, while waiting for my flight to Denver to take me to my flight to Portland. At the end of a ten day vacation, I am full of freshly-read material and festering ideas about the future, of reinvention, of reinvigoration. I am excited to return to my business, in the old ways and in some new ways, and I am excited to try new things.

Dry January (Brain Rot Edition) is one of those new things. It is, in a sense, an elimination of technically unnecessary brain input in an effort to focus and rejuvenate where my attention is going, and what art, information, and (long fart sound) content I am taking in. I will do this by eliminating sources of “empty calorie” media on my phone, ipad, and computer, as well as eliminating sources of automatic curation from providers like Spotify. I will also eliminate sources that can be replaced by something that shockingly still exists in our America: free services to people who sign up for a library card.

Here is what I am cancelling and/or deleting from my devices:

• Spotify

• Apple Podcasts

• Apple Books

• HBO (HBO Max [MAX])

• Netflix

• Hulu/Abc

• YoutubeTV

• Instagram

• YouTube

• TikTok

Here is what I am keeping:

• Libby

• Kanopy

• Local Radio apps

• NTS Radio app

• Criterion Channel

So, what am I really losing, and why am I choosing to do that?

What I am losing most is convenience. Spotify is going to be the biggest loss, with podcasts in a close second. These two apps fill, genuinely, hours of my day; especially working days, when my hands are kept busy but my mind is mostly unoccupied by the tasks. Having instant access to basically all of recorded music, and having access to tons of conversations from smart, funny, and/or interesting people to bounce around my head, are unbelievable resources.

I’m choosing to turn off Spotify, particularly, because I have started to become disenfranchised to their mission, stated and otherwise acted, and have read many concerning details about what they are implementing. They are attempting to eliminate our interests and interactions, it seems, in our music and soundscape choices, which I am vehemently opposed to. My whole purpose is to seek things out with interest and to experience them with intention and focus. I don’t need your computer program to tell me how to disassociate better.

Additionally, I am canceling paid subscriptions to movie and television streaming services. I am renewing my annual membership to the local Hollywood Theatre this week, which will also continue my being a Movie Madness member. Movie Madness is a video rental store here in Portland, OR, and it has everything that I could want to see in it. Leaning on their services, and getting a rent-one-get-one-free discount with my membership, will get me out of the house and will sharpen my focus on my movie viewing habits, which I am always trying to increase.

Finally, I am moving away from Instagram, which is sort of an outlier to this conversation. It is purely a social app, and I do love how much of my friends and family’s lives are shared with me there. But the platform is simply too reliant on keeping my attention in its little box, and it is the one true scrolling death machine I have right now. I’m choosing to get rid of that trap.

A smaller sacrifice that I am making is my ability to easily log and share what I am reading, watching, and listening to. Instagram is great for this, Spotify playlists are great for this, and my podcast app is typically filled with a dozen downloaded episodes to eventually get to. I’ll have to take these tasks offline, mostly, which is a change I appreciate making, though it will take longer, and I worry that I might miss something in that transfer. I’ll report back!

In the broadest terms, I don’t think I’m losing anything. I’m making a choice to dip my cup in cleaner streams, even if they are further away or harder to access or more shallow. I am still getting the water that I want and that I need.

So, what am I really gaining, and why am I choosing to focus on that?

Something I have already benefited from, and look forward to expanding, is the use of free services: the library and the radio. The library, obviously, is a source for books, but it will also help fill my need for audio hours with audiobooks on Libby. I also just realized that I can read magazines on Libby (common knowledge that I’m sure every person reading this has already known for years), and having that source of shorter form reading is wonderful.

The library also grants one access to Kanopy, a movie and television streaming service. There is educational content abounding in here, but there are also great crowd-pleasing choices. I just watched the original Nosferatu (1922) before the 2024 remake, which was very insightful. Opening the app right now, without any searching, I see:

• Past Lives - a top 7 movie from 2023

• Anatomy of a Fall - a top 7 movie from 2023

• Perfect Days - a top 2 movie from 2023

• Punch Drunk Love - you know

• Night of the Living Dead - the foundational zombie text and a great movie

• Night of the Blood Beast (1958) - I have never heard of this but the poster art and title look amazing?

• Babes (2024) - What if a Broad City episode was a movie?

Of course, you can also just rent physical movies from the library. My local branch has hundreds, and I’m sure the other local branches have thousands more. We really need to realize how good, and bountiful, we have it.

On the topic of movies, I am keeping the movie streaming service The Criterion Channel for two main reasons: they are not interested in using advertisements to generate revenue, and they are interested in programming materials in the name of education, restoration, and discovery. I believe in their purpose, I appreciate their service, and I want to give money to a company that exists to shine a light on art that is fighting against time and against an endless wave of new competition. Their offerings are completely unmatched, they create ride-along content if you want to learn more about what you are watching, who made what you are watching, who influenced what you are watching, and more. The Criterion Channel is a film school, and it costs $100 for an entire year, which is cheaper than any other ad-free movie streamer. This seems to me the only choice for an experiment like this.

The radio, if you’ve been asleep for ten years or are not yet thirty years old, still fucking rocks. I have been an avid KMHD¹ listener for the ten years that I have lived in Portland, but my listening has increased since the pandemic. I love getting to know the DJ’s, and going out and seeing them spin records locally. It really feels like a small community that I can access in-person, which is harder to find these days. I have also started listening to NTS Radio, which has stood as a beacon for more worldly music-listening critics and cultivators. The music they are programming is vastly different from my usual fare, and I love it for that. Kicking most of what I know to the side for the month and inviting new, unknown curators into my ears is disruptive, yes, but also exciting as hell (I just spent an hour listening to a Cosmic Americana playlist on NTS, and it was sensational).

It might feel wishy-washy, and it still feels that way to me right now, but I am starting to believe in taking back some power and agency from the men that have decided to make money off of my attention. Movie streamers aren’t interested in preservation or cultivation or quality; music streamers aren’t interested in supporting human artists or human listeners; social media apps aren’t interested in connecting humans to humans. As Vinson Cunningham talked about on a recent episode of Critics at Large², all of these apps on your phone, all of these subscriptions and time-sucks, are the platforms of one individual person, a la Elon Musks’s Twitter. One person is aiming to make a group of investors money. I liken it to the worst person you know in high school is hosting a party, you have to pay to get in, you hate every single person there, but they have sugary snacks and good liquor and a hot tub. You are going to have base itches scratched, and you will gain nothing of long-term value from attending. It’s time to stop going to these parties.

INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT CAVEAT

I love spending time on these apps. I like going to that party. I believe it is not fully servicing to only consume purely nutritional foods; you should have that amazing desert, you should have crap fast food that is easy and affordable, and you should watch garbage television. You should have access to all of these things, in a perfect world, and enjoying them is unjudgable. The real answer to this problem I am investigating is the same answer for all problems of consumption: moderation. I am going to moderate myself pretty harshly for this coming month. I recommend investigating your own moderation, as well, and coming up with a plan that moves you toward where you want to be.

THE SUBSTACK CAVEAT

One app which has built up its scrolling social media options is Substack: the Notes page is a true social media feed, and it is one that I am going to have access to this month. I have already felt the pull the scroll through it endlessly, which is the exact opposite of what I want to be doing here. But this feed contains real writing attached to it, and in my experience, I come across intriguing writing very quickly while scrolling Notes, like falling into a rushing river but immediately finding a large log to grab onto and easily come back ashore. This will be a resource that needs special monitoring in my behavior and use of it, and I will try my best to only let it lead me to something better.

I think this is going to be hard. I know it, in fact. I am uncomfortable, currently, with the whole-body feeling I get when I reach for a device, or when I’m starting at a device’s home screen, and I don’t have any apps to open to fulfill whatever urge has lead me to pick up the device in the first place. I call this act — the reaching for quick bites of pleasure from fake electronic sources — dopamine groping. But that urge — the dopamine groping — and that whole-body feeling, is the impetus for putting down my device and reaching for something different, and each time that happens, I will be reaching for a book, or a radio program, or a tool to pursue a hobby, and I will be fulfilled in a deeper way.

What if you turned every minor empty urge into something with a modicum of real use, for an entire month? What if you micro-torture your psyche in the name of progress? What if you tried something new?

---

I hope the new year brings you peace, joy, comfort, and renewed purpose, even if you have to cultivate all of those yourself.

1. KMHD is a member-supported radio station in Gresham, OR that “celebrates a diverse array of the rich history of recorded jazz and its related sub-genres, ensuring that this uniquely American art form continues to thrive in our region and beyond.“

2. The specific episode of Critics at Large, a New York Magazine podcast with three culture critics, talks about current teens and their world of phone and social media use. It is sometimes harrowing, but to me, a valuable listen.

Bibliography, or: Things I was thinking about and listening to while writing this:

Hsu, Hua. “What Spotify is Really Costing Us.” in The New Yorker (December 2024).

Gioia, Ted. “The Ugly Truth About Spotify is Finally Revealed.” on Substack (December 2024).

Dylan, Bob. Highway 61 Revisited. Columbia Records. 1965. Streaming.