THE FUSE

We often think carefully about what we put into our bodies, yet we rarely apply the same scrutiny to what we put into our minds. As a researcher with a particular interest in online consumer cultures, I often reflect on the effects that spending a sizeable portion of our lives in digital environments can have on us. Just as a diet built entirely on fast food can undermine our physical health, a steady stream of sensationalist headlines and algorithmically curated echo chambers can distort our understanding of the world. So how can we become conscious consumers of information rather than passive recipients of whatever appears in our feeds?