Brett McCracken has given us a beautiful gift in The Wisdom Pyramid. By creatively reimagining the FDA food pyramid as a guide for healthy media consumption, McCracken offers a roadmap to wisdom in a world saturated with (mis)information. He uses the metaphor of diet and nutrition throughout the book to draw parallels between our physical and mental intake, emphasizing the often overlooked impact that our habits of information consumption has on our hearts and minds.
In the introduction and first three chapters, McCracken diagnoses the core problems contributing to our current societal malaise—information gluttony, the constant pursuit of novelty, and the dangerous allure of self-centered autonomy. He then devotes the next six chapters to laying out the foundations for a life of wisdom, which include in this order: the Bible, the church, nature, books, beauty, and the internet and social media. His point is not to vilify the internet or social media but to highlight how our consumption patterns have become the inverse of what they should be if we would be wise.
McCracken’s insights are timely and convicting. He captures the essence of our unhealthy media habits, which have left us more anxious and less wise. Many of us have felt this unease. Personally, I’ve been tempted to abandon the digital world entirely, to retreat to an analog existence, leaving the digital disciples to their own devices. But McCracken reminds us from church history that, as Christians, our calling is not to run from the sick but to run toward them with healing. Despite my desire to disengage from the online world, there are countless souls who need to be ministered to, even in the digital sphere. I won’t live there anymore, but I’m willing to visit. As McCracken wisely points out, we must first attend to our own digital health before we can effectively help others.
Curiously, McCracken describes “digital detoxes,” as largely an “activity of the privileged” (p. 146). Perhaps he’s right, but I’m not okay with that. Everyone, regardless of age or circumstance, should have the freedom to disconnect from the digital world for days, if not a week or more at a time. The benefits of such a practice are immeasurable, especially in helping us recognize just how unhealthy our information consumption habits have been.
I won’t take time to go into the specifics of the digital sickness that McCracken describes—we see its symptoms daily: the erosion of critical thinking, the inability to focus, the constant noise that drowns out reflection and discernment. Instead, I urge you to read The Wisdom Pyramid. It’s a quick read, but the insights it offers punch well-above the weight of the book. A person could simply look up the basics of McCracken’s wisdom pyramid online, adopt the model, and immediately experience positive benefit. But actually reading the book will equip you with the conviction needed to resist the relentless forces that will seek to turn your pyramid back upside down.
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