Reading takes effort. Audio-visual media does not. It plays regardless of whether you are comprehending what you see and hear.

Many of us, when we start our day, are half asleep. Our mental defences are down and our comprehension mechanisms haven’t kicked in yet. Our brains are working through the fog, warming up for the day.

When you reach for the phone immediately after waking up, you set the tone for the rest of the day. Sounds and visuals full of action and loud opinions are some of the first things that enter your mind. You don’t process all of it, but your brain gets into the habit of having loud and unclear things as a regular part of your morning ritual. Our actions create neural pathways in our brain. By subjecting our minds to regular acts of unthinking consumption, we train our brains to be okay with consuming without fully understanding.