Sometimes your brain is filled up with pop culture and won’t accept more. I found this out a couple of weeks back while talking to a friend who works out at the same time I do.
We discussed the TV show, “Alone.” Both of us are fans.
He went off on how great it was, and addictive. But he hadn’t watched it recently.
I talked about the most recent season, but he couldn’t comment because it had fallen by his personal wayside. “I don’t know why,” he said in response to my question on why he wasn’t watching.
Once we batted that around a bit, I suggested, “Maybe your pop culture brain cells are filled up.” He laughed, then nodded his head that it was a definite possibility, if not probability.
We followed that path for a bit, discussing how the show had flown away from his consciousness. Other things in life intruded. He focused elsewhere.
It’s a strange condition when you consider this. We may appreciate something like the show, “Alone,” and have good intentions about continuing to follow up. For reasons probably unknown, it doesn’t rise to the level of our memory where we say, “Yeah, let’s turn it on Wednesday night.” Or, “Let’s record the entire season so we know we can watch it when we want to.”
Instead, it fades away, like so much pop culture entertainment. The good reason we don’t necessarily follow up is because shows don’t really matter. Life intervenes. You’re working, cooking, doing laundry, commuting, raising children, caring for pets or elderly parents, working on your house or yard.
Pop culture is a diversion from all that other stuff. We watch and listen to get away from our daily grind issues.
It becomes easy to forget. “Dammit, ‘Alone’ was on last night and we missed it.”
Not a big deal. You can always catch the next episode. Once you miss though, it becomes easier to forget the next one as well, and that’s where those saturated pop culture brain cells come into play.
THERE ARE SO MANY ENTERTAINMENT OPTIONS VYING FOR OUR ATTENTION! Sports, movies, TV shows, books, stuff on YouTube, music, and the list goes on.
When you fill up, something has to go. I often use the analogy of the brain being a sponge, soaking up water (information). It gets saturated after a point. You have to squeeze it to get the liquid out, then the sponge is able to re-absorb more material.
That’s hard to do because the brain still stores data back in there somewhere. You can put things on the back shelf, but things are still percolating.
Which may be why “Alone” (or whatever example you want to use) takes a back shelf. Something else took its place.
This syndrome plays out in many parts of our life as we forget to return phone calls or text messages or emails. We forget appointments. We’re late to an event because it slipped our mind.
A full brain is endemic to our lives today. Figuring out how to empty it, and keep the important stuff flowing placidly along, on time, is a challenge.
I think the best advice is to set those priorities on what you really care about. You have to commit. And, most pop culture entertainment doesn’t rise to a level of critical importance. We fill up. We eliminate. We move on.
We discussed the TV show, “Alone.” Both of us are fans.
He went off on how great it was, and addictive. But he hadn’t watched it recently.
I talked about the most recent season, but he couldn’t comment because it had fallen by his personal wayside. “I don’t know why,” he said in response to my question on why he wasn’t watching.
Once we batted that around a bit, I suggested, “Maybe your pop culture brain cells are filled up.” He laughed, then nodded his head that it was a definite possibility, if not probability.
We followed that path for a bit, discussing how the show had flown away from his consciousness. Other things in life intruded. He focused elsewhere.
It’s a strange condition when you consider this. We may appreciate something like the show, “Alone,” and have good intentions about continuing to follow up. For reasons probably unknown, it doesn’t rise to the level of our memory where we say, “Yeah, let’s turn it on Wednesday night.” Or, “Let’s record the entire season so we know we can watch it when we want to.”
Instead, it fades away, like so much pop culture entertainment. The good reason we don’t necessarily follow up is because shows don’t really matter. Life intervenes. You’re working, cooking, doing laundry, commuting, raising children, caring for pets or elderly parents, working on your house or yard.
Pop culture is a diversion from all that other stuff. We watch and listen to get away from our daily grind issues.
It becomes easy to forget. “Dammit, ‘Alone’ was on last night and we missed it.”
Not a big deal. You can always catch the next episode. Once you miss though, it becomes easier to forget the next one as well, and that’s where those saturated pop culture brain cells come into play.
THERE ARE SO MANY ENTERTAINMENT OPTIONS VYING FOR OUR ATTENTION! Sports, movies, TV shows, books, stuff on YouTube, music, and the list goes on.
When you fill up, something has to go. I often use the analogy of the brain being a sponge, soaking up water (information). It gets saturated after a point. You have to squeeze it to get the liquid out, then the sponge is able to re-absorb more material.
That’s hard to do because the brain still stores data back in there somewhere. You can put things on the back shelf, but things are still percolating.
Which may be why “Alone” (or whatever example you want to use) takes a back shelf. Something else took its place.
This syndrome plays out in many parts of our life as we forget to return phone calls or text messages or emails. We forget appointments. We’re late to an event because it slipped our mind.
A full brain is endemic to our lives today. Figuring out how to empty it, and keep the important stuff flowing placidly along, on time, is a challenge.
I think the best advice is to set those priorities on what you really care about. You have to commit. And, most pop culture entertainment doesn’t rise to a level of critical importance. We fill up. We eliminate. We move on.
