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Your Brain on the Internet: Digital Intelligence

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The New Yorker

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Jonah Lehrer: The Surprising Benefits of Daydreaming

02 min 24 sec

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Author and WIRED contributing editor Jonah Lehrer discusses the surprising benefits of daydreaming, and questions whether ubiquitous access to the Internet negatively affects the ability to let one's mind wander.

"Now, every time I get even a little bit bored ... I check my email for the millionth time that day," says Lehrer. "I lose myself in my 3-inch screen, instead of exploring the usual process of daydreaming."
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01 hr 38 min 35 sec

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There are 3 comments on this program

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Previous FORAtv comments:

-Paz-

Posted: 02.22.12, 05:31 AM

I think it's nonsense to suggest that we are thinking less productively because of the internet etc, I would argue the exact opposite is true

ChristopherAhlin

Posted: 11.09.10, 03:26 PM

thepian: Of course the ideas just don't pop into your head, that's not what he suggested, it just seems to do that from the point of the view of the person who is "daydreaming". It doesn't feel different from normal thinking and many people have a hard time understanding that they actually sat and thought about what could seen like completely random things, not paying attention to anything that is happening around them, for good 10min before actually reached the finished idea. You're still thinking while daydreaming, you can think pretty complicated stuff as well, it's just that you don't really notice it until you snap out of the daydream or have a profound idea.

thepian

Posted: 10.10.10, 02:06 AM

Nothing happens. We don't daydream less. The people that used to watch television by default are now browsing the web/checking email/playing a game by default. Great ideas don't just pop into your head. You have to be aware of your capacity to invent, and then hone it over time. Someone that has spent significant effort in honing a creative skill is going to protect the skill, and not just lapse into killing time.

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