When I was working, I didn’t have time to think. Like most people, my day was a rush of things that needed to get done, from the moment I woke up, until the dinner dishes were done and the laundry put away. By the time evening arrived, I was too tired to do any thinking. It was a time for “relaxing” in front of the TV or scrolling through social media. Thinking takes alertness. My day had used all that up.
The Convenience Of Pre-Packaged Thoughts
When I don’t have time to think, there were many places on the internet where all the thinking is done for me. In bite-sized videos that my tired brain can take in, there are people who distill wisdom into a couple of sentences or, even better, a short phrase. Ted Talks and YouTube videos, Instagram Reels and Tik Toks, take the issues of the day and condense them into brief, easy to understand pieces. They do the hard thinking for you and, we are grateful for the convenience. Just like having bread delivered from a store rather than making it from scratch, I am relieved to have ideas that I don’t have to think about.
Is Thinking A Waste Of Time?
Thinking takes time and I wonder if it’s a good use of my time, when I can easily find it pre-packaged and ready to consume. Reading books and articles takes time. Walking and thinking about it takes time. Organizing my thoughts and writing about it takes time. Is this time wasted? I could easily have Artificial Intelligence do my writing for me. What do I have to lose?
What Do I Lose If I Don’t Do My Own Thinking?
When I take my advice from short videos, I don’t truly understand an issue. I click the “like” or “heart” button to show I agree. Then the ideas float over me and disappear. Later, the same ideas get repackaged by another content creator and fed to me again by the algorithm that knows I like this thought. I maintain only a surface understanding.
New Learning Affects My Decisions
When I read and think and write about ideas, they stay. They become part of my understanding of the world. That’s the difference. Then I can think critically. I can make decisions (vote, support others, consume) based on my new knowledge and I understand why I’m doing it. The learning has become part of me.
Have you noticed yourself being pulled into consuming bite-sized, pre-packaged ideas? How has retirement affected this? Comment below.
This post was originally published 2023/05/16
Retired, And Now What? 
“When I take my advice from short videos, I don’t truly understand an issue.” You’ve hit on one of the biggest problems of our society here, Caroline. People have forgotten how to think for themselves, do their homework, and form their own opinions.
In a world where you could trust the information that’s out there, this would be less of a problem. But misinformation is rampant, and those who spread it are counting on us not to do our homework and share without thinking or understanding.
I don’t think retirement has changed how I consume or think about issues. I’ve always been curious enough to seek to understand things.
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I found this absolutely brilliant and so typical of the way I
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