The worst report: the head (do not use it)
A viral message complains that piling up messages is not thinking. We explain why the brain prefers repeating ideas over spending energy on a new one.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The message claims that people do not think, they just pile up messages and repeat identical blocks. It is a complaint without data, but it points to something real: thinking costs energy and the brain tends to save it.
## The complaint: thinking means using your head, not receiving messages
The text circulating these days says it bluntly: the head is for thinking, not for piling up messages. Whoever wrote it claims that receiving and forwarding messages is not thinking, and that those who do it end up repeating the same blocks, all identical. It offers no figures or studies to back it up. It is an opinion, and should be taken as such.
What is an established fact is that the brain consumes around **20%** of the energy of the human body despite accounting for only **2%** of its weight. That spending spikes when something new has to be solved. Repeating what you already know is far cheaper.
## Why we repeat instead of thinking
Psychology has been describing the shortcut for decades: when faced with an idea we already hold, we accept it faster and with less effort than one that contradicts it. It is called confirmation bias, and it is not a flaw of a few, it is how the mind works by default.
The message calls it cowardice and laziness. The label is harsh and does not hold up, but the mechanism it describes does exist: the more an idea is repeated, the more familiar it becomes, and the familiar is mistaken for the true. That has a name, the illusory truth effect, documented since the **seventies** of the last century.
## The counter does not think for you
The text insists on something worth separating from the complaint: the screen does not speak for anyone. A message counter measures messages sent, not ideas thought. They are two different things, and confusing them is the underlying mistake.
The fact that the complaint comes without data does not entirely invalidate it. It points to a real problem, that of confusing activity with thinking, but it does not prove that nobody thinks. And on this, as on almost everything concerning the head, it is best not to draw medical or psychological conclusions without a professional present.
## The complaint: thinking means using your head, not receiving messages
The text circulating these days says it bluntly: the head is for thinking, not for piling up messages. Whoever wrote it claims that receiving and forwarding messages is not thinking, and that those who do it end up repeating the same blocks, all identical. It offers no figures or studies to back it up. It is an opinion, and should be taken as such.
What is an established fact is that the brain consumes around **20%** of the energy of the human body despite accounting for only **2%** of its weight. That spending spikes when something new has to be solved. Repeating what you already know is far cheaper.
## Why we repeat instead of thinking
Psychology has been describing the shortcut for decades: when faced with an idea we already hold, we accept it faster and with less effort than one that contradicts it. It is called confirmation bias, and it is not a flaw of a few, it is how the mind works by default.
The message calls it cowardice and laziness. The label is harsh and does not hold up, but the mechanism it describes does exist: the more an idea is repeated, the more familiar it becomes, and the familiar is mistaken for the true. That has a name, the illusory truth effect, documented since the **seventies** of the last century.
## The counter does not think for you
The text insists on something worth separating from the complaint: the screen does not speak for anyone. A message counter measures messages sent, not ideas thought. They are two different things, and confusing them is the underlying mistake.
The fact that the complaint comes without data does not entirely invalidate it. It points to a real problem, that of confusing activity with thinking, but it does not prove that nobody thinks. And on this, as on almost everything concerning the head, it is best not to draw medical or psychological conclusions without a professional present.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (0 replies).
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