We went out for dinner the other night and as I looked around to take in the place, something struck me as odd. Every table was quiet. Its occupants immersed in their phones.
Sad, isn’t it when you can’t enjoy the company of the person with whom you’ve come out with because your mind is busy elsewhere?
The phones had completely taken over the minds. People were glued to the screen, oblivious to the world around them.
They were ready to scroll through dozens of videos, consume opinions, jokes, or snippets of information (verified or not) but not engage with the human being with them.
What’s the end result? What did your brain actually have to do during that time?
It watched, reacted, swiped and consumed. That’s all.
The problem isn’t the content itself. What troubles me is the passive consumptions without the mental engagement.
The mind is constantly stimulated but not necessarily challenged. And sometimes it makes you feel like you’re busy even though your mind isn’t mentally engaged.
Eventually a complacency sets in as the brain gets used to receiving rather that generating.
I read it somewhere that a busy brain isn’t necessarily an active brain. And this is the uncomfortable reality you’ve to accept.
Consumption Can Crowd Out Creativity
This is where the social media comes in. It’s a double edged sword. How and how much you use will determine its utility.
If you constantly consume other people’s ideas and creations, you’re stepping into their world. The time spent going over their version of the curated lives is the time taken from building your own.
The comparisons make it worse. It instead creates feelings of incompetence or inadequacies. You feel you’re not ready to match their levels of excellence.
Or rather, you don’t have enough time to do so. The more you watch the more overwhelmed you feel, reiterating the feeling of being unprepared.
But then where’s the time for you to innovate or create if your mind is busy?
For ideas to take form, for creativity to flourish, you need empty space in your mind. It’s only then the mind can work optimally. Not when its being handed the next thing to look at.
What Happens to Problem-Solving?
You don’t realise it but sometimes this endless scrolling deeply impacts you as a person. It quietly brings about changes in your personality.
Your focus is no longer keen. Your patience dips, making you less tolerant and easily frustrated.
You no longer are sharp with making connections.
How long are you now willing to sit with something, work on it? Do you’ve the patience to try and fail and try again? Or would you rather move on to the next thing?
That’s what you do when scrolling isn’t it – you don’t find something interesting, you immediately swipe.
There’s a decline in the tolerance for slow beginning of worthwhile things. A book takes too long. A difficult problem feels tedious. Learning a language feels slow. And the instinct is, “What’s next?”
The mind becomes so accustomed to receiving the next thing that you stop giving your mind the space to generate the next thing.
It’s a habit that slowly spills into your learning, work, conversations, and even relationships. The change is so gradual that it goes almost unnoticeable.
That harmless scrolling is quietly transforming you into a problem from a problem-solver. Worrisome, isn’t it?
Children Are Learning This from Us
Now we want to be the responsible adults, setting the right example for the children to follow. So what are we teaching them if at the first instance we pick up the phone to begin scrolling?
There are lesser conversations during meal times, no more snuggling in with a book before bedtime, no time spent solving puzzles or building things or playing imaginatively.
The list of things missing in the present childhood situations can go on. But what needs to be asked is how’s it going to impact them in the long term?
The children are in a state of constant stimulation. They need to be ‘entertained’ all the time. They are no longer ready to stay with something, ready to drop it like a hot potato if it gets difficult.
Boredom is no longer an issue. They can keep themselves diverted online. Outcome – instead of their minds whirring with creative ideas, it gets dulled into complacency.
It changes them into kids who want to be kept entertained and engaged, instead of looking for ways to keep themselves busy.
And Adults Aren’t Exempt
It’s one tempting distraction, no denying that. I’ve seen parents busy looking into their phones when waiting at the doctors’ or awaiting their turn in the classroom during a PTM, or even outside the movie theatre waiting for the doors to open.
Honestly there’s so much to do that a lifetime is not enough.
Pick up a skill, read something that challenges you, learn an instrument or language (that would be awesome), work on something without needing immediate stimulation.
Maybe build something with your child, reconnecting with them, or start a small project. The list can go on.
You don’t have to be productive or constructive or creative the whole time. You just need to understand how to use your time optimally. A conscious balance is essential.
Make sure the focus is one creation, and not just consumption.
The Shift: Consumer → Creator
Of course you need to take a breather every now and then. Scroll or binge watch a series. But not as a regular activity.
Even when you’re watching, be conscious of what you’re consuming. Consistently watching something can influence your thinking.
Consciously create some non-gadget time. No screens at all.
Or maybe keep the phone away and pick up a book or play with your child or cook something. Do something which doesn’t need you to pick up that phone or remote.
For the adults, begin a passion project to keep yourself immersed and focused. A great way for personal development or adding a skill.
For children, an hour of reading (actual reading and not turning pages), or solving some puzzles or playing outdoors or even working on some project, like creating a working model, is fun way to spend time.
The younger children can try working on their handwritings. It will improve their focus and motor skills while also teach them about perseverance and attentiveness.
And believe me, every teacher will bless you. The kind of handwritings they get to read through is torture enough.
And if despite doing so many things, you feel bored at times, let that happen. It’s good to feel bored. That’s when the next brilliant idea will take form in your head.
Closing thought
Sometimes it gets overwhelming with the constant input the mind is receiving. There’s little time for it to process or think.
The constant stimulation gives the brain something to ‘react to’ but very little to ‘work on’.
The brain requires some free time of its own to wander and think without the stress of constant stimulation.
Give it some time to think about something, be it something you read or heard.
Afterall, the brain was built to question and imagine, solve and explore. Don’t let it get complacent with being fed.
The more you push your mind to think, the more active it will get. Give it opportunities to generate, process, persist and explore.
Choose wisely what you want to watch and do with your time.
