Bored and Brilliant

Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi         Audiobook:  7 hours     Hardback Book:  208 pages       

Manoush Zomorodi researched how much better our minds work when not letting technology do all the thinking for us.   She cites several psychologists, several surveys, several statistics on how allowing our technology do all the mental jobs we used to do is taking a toll on our ability to formulate thoughts and is draining our ability to conceptualize and reason.    While it can’t be irrefutably said that we are totally losing brain power over playing all those entertaining games on line, on game stations and on our phones it is proving to be more than possible that constantly overloading our minds with sensory over stimulation is making our attention span peak at very low numbers.    Fact: It is becoming harder and harder for people to read written material and when they do, their eyes tend to bounce around on the page and their interest span decreases to the point of having read half of what they did prior to the internet age.     People want their information now and faster and do not read from left to right as well because scrolling has trained the mind to look at the page from top to bottom.    Science is not sure where the internet and smart phones are taking human kind and whether the end results will be for the better or worse.    In many cases millennials are moving strongly away from face to face encounters and will text another person even when in the same room rather than have a conversation.    Phone calls are falling into the category of yesterday’s news as more and more email and social media sites gain status as the main tool for communication.   Manoush is worried by this – does this portend we are moving to a sterile solitary society of internet communication only and one on one encounters seeming as old school as our parents’ youth?    Manoush and many other organizations are trying to bring back verbal conversation as opposed to electronic forms of communication.   Yes, while faster and more economical there are many pros to what is going on around the world but is it all for the better?    By depending on our smartphones to tell us what we want to know are we giving up brain power and the ability to appreciate going out into the world and learning from experiences rather than the images brought to us via our screens?    A very interesting book with some surprising information that really makes you stop and think (what a concept – when Google could do it for you).    A worthy read, makes you thnk about just how much of our lives we do give over to our current technology devices.   Manoush recommends going at least a week every now and then or certainly a day without technological aids of any kind just to go back to what feels like the pioneer days of having to look stuff up on our own or taking a walk in the park without any kind of electrical device beeping a reminder at us.    Excellent stuff here, not to be ignored.   Good book.    Many challenges included.