A wandering mind is an unhappy mind?
A recent study* led by a Harvard researcher published in Science magazine found:
(i) that people are thinking about what is not happening almost as often as they are thinking about what is and (ii) found that doing so typically makes them unhappy.
The researchers created an iPhone app that contacted several thousand study participants at random moments during waking hours to ask them questions about what they were doing, what they were thinking, and how they felt. Nearly 47 percent of the participants reported that their minds were on something other than what they were doing (i.e. wandering), regardless of the activity they were doing (except having sex). They also found that people were less happy when their minds were wandering than when they were not, and that “this was true during all activities, including the least enjoyable.” Yet, as the researchers noted, “many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found living in the moment, and practitioners are trained to resist mind wandering.”
I can’t prove this but it seems fairly obvious that at least part of the reason so many of us are always checking our phones and email, and constantly listening to iPods, is to avoid having to be alone with our thoughts. We are in an age of distraction, suffering from a perpetual boredom than can never be rectified. And our technological devices only serve to encourage what this study shows is our human tendency for mental escapism. And, since according to this study, the more we are removed from being in the moment the less happy we are, all the devices and screens we continue to create to improve our lives in effect are worsening them.
As if we needed more proof that failure to Be Here Now is not a good thing, a Times article, referencing several recent studies, points out that all our multitasking and elimination of downtime by constantly looking at screens, making use of every “micro-moment,” is leading to brain fatigue, harming our ability to learn and remember new information. It makes sense - not only are we not in the moment when it’s happening, we also can’t remember it later (because we were never really present to begin with).
*Sorry - Science magazine has a pay wall on their site.
