Do people still think?

By Bryan Cain-Jackson


This is a question that I ask myself all the time. There are all sorts of things that make me ask it on a regular basis.


Lowell Thomas once theorized a fact… Or a myth that said humans use only 10% of their brain at any given time. Assuming that this is a fact and not a myth, it is a valid question as to whether we do still use 10% of our brains today. Or is it less?


The reason that I ask is that there are so many things in our world that are designed to make things easier. Obviously when things become easier, we don’t have to think about them as hard or even as much.


There are so many signals to dwindling creativity that would support the theory that we might not be thinking as much as we used to or as much as we should. Anyone watched TV or gone to the movies lately? Most programs on TV are reality shows that don’t require any real writing or creativity. Most movies have plots that a chimp could figure out. They lack creativity with repeated plots and ideas, as well as boorishly uninspired and predictable endings. That’s not even taking into account all the sequels and remakes that are being made. It’s very irritating to me as a writer.


Technology has changed the way we exude creativity. Movies are a great example of how thought and manpower has fallen by the waist side due to computer animation. The same exciting special effects that we used to see in films years ago would take hours upon hours and a lot of labor to get that on the screen. That’s nothing to speak of all the thought that went into each one of those scenes they had created. Now, with one or two guys you can have an entire scene created in a matter of minutes with a couple of presses of the keyboard.


Reading is another example. It seems that people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. If it requires too much thought, they just simply don’t want to do it. Experts predict that each generation of children in the United States are becoming increasingly more illiterate. This doesn’t make any sense to me.






What are your thoughts? Do you think that technology is responsible for shortening attention spans? Why do you think we may not be thinking as much as we should?