We think less these days.
I state that as an absolute because, as a student of human nature and as someone who observes people as part of my day job, I have amassed some evidence in this space. We ARE thinking less, and we are tuning out – “Turning our brain off to enjoy ourselves” – more. Especially in the crazy year of 2020
Guilty as charged. There is no judgement here – I, like many people in the world, have throttled down my brain power to “cruise mode” more often than I would care to admit. I used to be able to remember phone numbers – now, not so much. I used to remember directions to places – now, I rely on my phone’s map app.
Why is this? Yes, I am getting older, but… Aren’t we all, every moment of the day? The collective “we” appears to have lower short term memory than the previous generation (I admit, the evidence is anecdotal in this case).
I find it ironic that in a world where we have access to more information that in the history of the world, people are thinking less. And less people are thinking for themselves.
I blame myself. Or, more specifically, my job as a UX designer. One of the key movements in user experience design over the past few years has been something I call “Zero Learn Time”: You design an experience to be obvious for any new user to pick up. You leverage existing patterns, and also don’t make things too complex. It started with “Mobile first” design, and has spread to more and more applications and experiences. Which is fine… Except everything tends to look the same. And boring.
As I write this, a tremendous number of people in America thinks that if you catch COVID-19, it’s a death sentence. Even when the data clearly demonstrates that the majority of people who die from it have at least one existing condition, and many have two or more. Oh, and the majority of people who have died are over 60 years old. But, because of media hype and misinformation, there are people (like my Mom) who is afraid to leave their home. Amazing.
Will things get better? Are we headed to the world of Mike Judge’s film “Idiocracy?” I don’t know. I do know that we are rewiring our brains every day, and the parts of the brain that get exercise will strengthen and or maintain itself, and the unused lobes may… stay unused, maybe forever.
The brain isn’t technically a muscle, but in many ways it is… And a muscle atrophies when it is not exercised and used. Me, I’m trying to “exercise” by reading more, diving deep into the details of news stories, and learning new skills (like 3D modeling). Also, I’m taking Gingko Biloba.
It couldn’t hurt.