lean forward vs lean back consumption

In a recent episode of The Vergecast, Youtube creator Casey Neistat broadly categorised our media consumption habits into two types: lean forward and lean back. Lean forward consumption is designed to fill the gaps in your time. It is what algorithmic social media feeds are built for, providing an endless flow of content to keep you entertained (and advertised to). Conversely, lean back consumption is a deliberate decision; you are actively choosing to engage with a piece of media. This could be going to the cinema, reading a book or even simply being intentional in your selection of a Youtube video. While the majority of lean forward content is forgotten, content consumed in a lean back state tends to stick with you, prompting further contemplation and analysis, even if just for a few moments.

The podcast host extended this further by categorising platforms as scroll and watch. He argued that on scroll platforms the primary activity is the scrolling, rather than the media consumption itself. The content is incidental. While, on watch platforms, your primary function is to take in what’s in front of you.

Companies are financially incentivised towards lean forward because it is endless. The more frictionless they make consumption, the longer you stay, the more data they can collect from you and the more ads they can serve you. Hence the TikTok-ification of social media apps in the post Covid era. Lean back, by contrast, is discreet. It is not meant to go on forever. What you watch is meant to live on in your mind as you move about your day, rather than be that which fills your day.

I am someone who’s been trying, with varying degrees of success, to stay on the lean back side. I have social media accounts, but none of the apps are on my phone. And I turned off my Youtube history and recommendations. Though this causes frustration when I lose my place in a video I was watching, the friction forces me to be deliberate about what I put in front of myself.

While there is a time and place for lean forward consumption, I think an overindulgence in it can strip us of critical thinking, active curation of personal taste and the ability to be present in the world around us.