Hmmmm...
I recently read an article by Maryanne Wolf from the Review of Straits Times on the 28th of September called "Will kids lose ability to think"? And it was a very good read.
Articles of this nature never fail to stimulate me because I often feel like a victim of my circumstance in this area. I am someone who is unable to sieve through knowledge to gain something out of it. Rather, I'm like a sponge that keeps on absorbing and never making sense of what I absorbed.
It may be because of the information explosion? That caused me to be lost in a world where there's so much to read. Sometimes I'm afraid to buy magazines or books to read, knowing I've already have so much at home to read and afraid that I can only gain very little from the much that I read.
It may be because of my inclination not to think as much? I am not sure how I developed this habit, probably because of the lack of time that has caused me to cut short certain processes, such as thinking. The way I approach issues is "give me the solution, and I will apply it instantly" often skipping the thinking and evaluation process. It has worked well for me until recently, when I realise, I do not value add to the knowledge that I pass along, often I'm just a channel who dilutes knowledge and doesn't input much wisdom.
Whatever reason, I am rather shocked and disgusted about the lack of use of my brain. And pretty upset. :( And I would like to change this? How? God, help me manoeuver through this unfortunate circumstance. That when I slowly weaved my way through it, I might realised, it was a blessing in disguise and I actually learn much more!
Snippets from the article:
To Socrates, only the arduous process of probing, analysing, and ultimately internalising knowledge would enable the young to develop a life-long approach to thinking that would lead them ultimately to wisdom, virtue and "friendship with (their) god".
To Socrates, only the examined word and the "examined life" were worth pursuing, and literacy short-circuited both.
How many children today are becoming Socrates' nightmare, mere decoders of information who have neither the time nor the motivation to think beneath or beyond their googled universe? Will they become so accustomed to immediate access to escalating on-screen information that they will fail to probe beyond the information given to the deeper layers of insight, imagination and knowledge that have led us to this stage of human thought?
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The act of going beyond the text to think new thoughts is a developmental, learnable approach towards knowledge.
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Children need to have both time to think and the motivation to think for themselves, to develop an expert reading brain, before the digital mode dominates their reading.
The immediacy and volume of information should not be confused with true knowledge.Knowledge creation. A chance to break out of this trap I am stuck in. I am lost in a jungle of information. And I either stand still or scramble in all directions, getting nowhere. God, I want to move out of this predicament I am in.
I don't want to remain shallow in thinking and knowledge. I want be be able to integrate, analyse, judge, sieve, THINK.
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