Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Studies Blog

Fat heads.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

No, I'm not talking about those stupid giant-sized sports figure cut-outs that people put on their wall. I'm talking about fat brains in an time of knowledge gluttony.

An old post over at the Harris' twins well-known Rebelution blog* (at least, among Christian teens it is well-known) caught my eye. The phrase that is used -- "mental obesity" -- had not occurred to me before. I generally thought of the concept in about 500 more words which, ironically, would be a form of some kind of verbal obesity.

Just as it is ridiculous to think that a constant intake of food will benefit our bodies, it is also ridiculous to think that a constant torrent of information will improve our minds. Like food, information must be carefully selected and properly digested to fulfill its God-given purpose.

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We're constantly feeding our minds mental snacks but never allowing for quiet reflection or thoughtful meditation. Worse still, we're feeding ourselves "junk food" thoughts -- high entertainment value, all sugar, and no nutrition.

The writers of the article point out how often we fill every moment of our lives with something -- TV, music -- just to avoid being alone with our thoughts and never having to worry about falling into deep thinking which may or may not be painful. They tie this in with the concept of multi-tasking, making it a part of a series on their blog.

I don't know about the multi-tasking aspect as being the main culprit, though there is something valid about not celebrating the ability to do lots of things poorly. However, mental obesity, as I'm now coming to think of it, has more to do with the junk and under-work and less to do with over-work. I'm as guilty as the next when it comes to wanting to learn more, more, more. Reading, going, seeing, experiencing.

Not bad, in and of itself, but, like food, deadly in excessive amounts. There's only so much room in my head for muscle, and I fill it up so fast that it turns to fat and fluff and nothing sticks in a way that can be used beyond more distraction and confusion.

That's my take on mental obesity.

Periodically, I find myself either gradually removed from reading certain blogs and web sites (perhaps through boredom or just falling out of habit), or forcefully finished (ugly incidents, specific decision to fight going back and breaking the habit). This plays into it: lots of noise out there, some I need to shut off. Same with magazines, the TV (do I really need to watch another show with the same storyline, different actors?), and books. Classic example: I'm easily caught up in reading books about the Bible (the book) instead of reading the actual Bible. The Bible is tough, but the commentaries and theories about it are much, much easier. Classic path to mental obesity.

It's like the last part of Myst, the part with the water spigots that needed to be turned the correct way in order to complete the challenge and generate power. (The only part I never solved, I might bitterly add.) It's important for me to get the right spigots turned on and off. Too much is not better than too little.

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*I generally read the Rebelution blog with a slight bemusement, not out of mocking, but out of being long gone from the teen years and the age of ever considering myself part of the latest generation that will change the world (for years, I was told that my generation would do that, too, which is part of the weird thing we do to teens -- tell them their generation will change the world until they hit about 23, and then start over with the next generation). The concept of "teen" and the strange subculture that we have allotted to it is best explained by Diana West in her book "Death of the Grown-Up." I appreciate what the Harris' brothers are trying to do, which is to speak to teens as adults and get them to step up and take responsibility instead of sinking into the eventual land of Adult Men and Women Who Act Like Teens Forever.