What Happened To Thinking?

I am disturbed by the trends in our society these days. No one seems to understand the importance of actually thinking. An incident last week seems to cover it all. I was attempting to discuss the book I’m working on with a young man and he had this vacant expression on his face. I asked if he ever read books and the vacant expression grew. His answer? “I like movies.” Obviously, books take work. You have to think and use your imagination. I’m not sure he has one of his own.

Add that to the trends towards movies that are eye candy and you have the proverbial mindless entertainment. I loved the Eragon book, but the movie was truly mindless. Now, I know the old book vs movie argument, but what I’m getting at goes deeper than the way the plot gets chopped up. The movie eliminated virtually all of the thought provoking internal conflict Eragon went through that was a critical part of the story. It then limited itself to the action scenes that would best hold the movie going audience’s attention. There was no real story left, just fast moving eye candy. We used to have movies that would make you actually think, but these days they are rare.

Why?

It’s the path of least resistance. It’s easier to watch a video than to read an instruction manual. We have come to the point where easier is always better, even though it’s not. Not for the task at hand, not for what it does to our ability to solve problems in general. In fact, it’s a huge trap. We have become far too dependent on the easy way of doing anything. We are enamored of the attitude of good enough. I am an anomaly. I go out of my way to appreciate something that takes effort of mind or body. I don’t like most contraptions designed to take all the effort out of what I do. I don’t learn anything that way. I do not improve a skill or learn to correct mistakes.

We live in an age where people sit and text to each other in little snippets and call it conversing. It’s easier than actually talking with someone. We watch the news and wait for the broadcast to tell us, not just what happened, but what it means. Have we lost all ability to determine the meaning for ourselves? What are we sacrificing by letting someone else do the thinking for us?