Does our brain become what we feed it? Do we crave silence and stillness for maximum creativity and cognitive function?
Here's a thought, courtesy of Jash Dholani
Let's be mean(ish).
I have a friend whom I had the pleasure of spending lots of time with recently. He's not the sharpest tool in the box, and works a nonsense job—although one that he is convinced is important, so it doesn't technically qualify as a David Graeber-type Bullshit Job.
There isn't much silence in his life; every moment of every day is filled with some sort of noise. If he's not playing a nonsense game on his phone, he's swiping through 5- or 10-second videos on TK or IG. Or else he calls his friends, me, or numerous family members for a brief chat while doing some household chore or walking from the station or running this or that errand.
Summary, dude's never thought hard about anything in his life.
I'm reminded of this scene from Eat Pray Love:
If you clear out all that space in your mind that you’re using right now to obsess about this guy, you’ll have a vacuum there, an open spot – a doorway. And guess what the universe will do with the doorway? It will rush in – God will rush in – and fill you with more love than you ever dreamed. So stop using David to block that door. Let it go.”
It wouldn't occur to him to watch a long-form podcast (#943891) or read a book.
Hanging out recently, then, I also noticed that in some of the more complicated convos we had, he lost the trail after about 10 seconds. If a chain of reasoning lasted for longer than that, or involved more than two or three components, his attention was elsewhere, his interest no longer on me or the ideas I was trying to give voice to.
I draw a direct line from the smartphones (dumb phones?) in our hands and the mindless scrolling they incentivize, and this loss of cognitive ability to reason or think or create.
As if on cue, a group of us (6-7 peeps) sat around waiting to leave and the conversation dried up. One by one the others took out their phones and started scrolling. I looked at them, one after the other, and then saw my friend doing the same thing. The addiction, instant-dopamine-feedback from a flashy screen, re-asserted itself. You know, you can just sit in peace; let stillness fill you; be with the universe. But eh, why bother... there are new cat videos every five seconds
Whatcha think, Stackers? Do we become what we feed our minds, do we train ourselves to only consume 10-second segments of information at a time? If so, have our tech superiority made us the dumbest generation yet?