I saw a bunch of people, probably 30 or 40 in total, walking through a busy intersection the other day. I saw ONE person without earbuds. ONE person not listening to music or a podcast or a book or talking to someone. ONE person who was just doing what she was doing. Her thoughts were her own in that moment. Maybe she was observing the world. Maybe she was thinking about dinner. Maybe she was thinking about the future; the past; figuring out a solution to something; zoning out; following her breath. Who knows? But she was the only one not connected to something outside of herself in that moment.
I believe that ideas are born in silence. They don’t spring magically from nothing, of course, although most of us are hard pressed to explain where any particular idea comes from. A new idea often seems sudden, sometimes revelationary, and definitely mysterious. Where the hell did that come from? we often ask ourselves. Sometimes they arrive clear and obvious, sometimes we are grasping for clarity even though we know “something” is there, or even more irritatingly, we may have had a solid grasp and then lost it. But without space to think, regular moments of silence, and the opportunity to disconnect from the relentless barrage of noise in our worlds we make it virtually impossible to entertain, or even access, new ideas that arise from within.
Not only do we not create the space to think, or maybe even to not think – more concerning is that we don’t really train our children HOW to think. We have ditched the times tables and cursive writing. We have ditched getting fully immersed in long projects and sticking with something long enough to establish a sense of mastery. We seem to even have ditched seeing things through. “Good try, good try, we’ll pass you anyway.” We have ditched simple exercises for the brain like memorizing long pieces of poetry. – Everything we could ever need to know is a mere click away, why bother committing anything to memory? The curriculum is jam packed, we don’t have time to learn the times tables. There are too many kids needing classroom support and the resources just aren’t enough so who has time for all this learning to think business at school? – And now the first generation who grew up in this hyperconnected world are the teachers and mentors of the current generation. They don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know how things used to be. They don’t know what they’re missing.
Progress is good, no doubt about it. BUT if we have lost the ability to think critically, and it hasn’t occurred to anyone to teach this fundamental, but dying, skill, and we haven’t figured out how to disconnect and allow our brains to do what they are designed to do, then that scares me a little about the future. Actually, it scares the shit out of me. I’m also a bit scared because in order to think critically we need to have some perspective. We need to know about cause and effect. We need to know about history and patterns so that we can learn from the past.
How much does the current generation know about World history? The social climate of Germany before WWI? Do they know how progressive Germany was in terms of women and minorities (relatively speaking) at this time in history? Do they know how much of a threat this was to Aryan power and control? Have they seen the historical pattern between controlling women’s reproductive rights and authoritarianism? Do they get it? Do they see what we all see? Has it crossed their minds? Are they thinking at all? We must ensure that each generation learns from the mistakes before them, but we must also provide our youth with the tools to think, to make connections, and to ask questions, to become outraged, to come up with solutions.
The Baby Boomers are now handing over the torch. We are putting the future in the hands of the next generation. So we’d better damn well make sure our kids know how to think. We have a responsibility to train them to disconnect regularly; to be critical about what they read and hear online; to learn about the past; to think about patterns; to allow their brains to create new connections and come up with novel solutions or original ideas. And I think it might be a decent idea to maybe just use our torches to light theirs, as opposed to handing them over altogether.
Humans are still smart. That’s not the issue. But we have allowed complacency and the thrill and adrenaline rush of this hyperconnected-everything at our fingertips-instant gratification world to erode some of the skills and values that might lead to a better world. There are fewer and fewer leaders and more and more followers and it is our responsibility to make sure that everyone has the skills, and creates the space, for thought.
Wonderful food for thought, thank you 🙂