and…how it might be mitigated.
Do I Have ‘Popcorn Brain’?
I honestly don’t know.
I do know I’m writing this and adding items to my todo list in between my two hands and in front of my keyboard.
When I was a pre-teen, a ‘PC Bang’ or 24-hour gaming cafe was where I used to play Starcraft, multiplayer style.
With a healthy choice of Mcnuggets, cheeseburger(s), and fully-sugared sodas, I’d wait for three out of four combatants to “rage quit” or leave a game in frustration, leaving their base and army to my mouse and keyboard.
While controlling four bases and battling four opponents, there were at least 64 components to keep track of while strategically overcoming the advantages of four minds working together.
Hold on, I have to set up our homemade, canvas sauna with Thai herbs for the day.
But, am I the product of cognitive overload? Probably.
Well, we’re cognitively overloaded much of the time.
To start, I have personally observed members of a rural community prioritize a cell phone plan over plans for flowing power and water.
Over the past few decades, I have also watched the number of advertisements increase significantly.
In the 1970s, individuals were exposed to approximately 500 to 1,600 ads per day from traditional media sources such as television, radio, newspapers, and billboards.
By 2007, the number of daily ad exposures had risen to up to 5,000 ads each day.
As of 2024, the average person is estimated to encounter around 10,000 ads each 24-hour cycle.
Other reports increase the range to over 30,000 sales-based influences whether a person knows it or not, in every 24 cycles of a human’s life, in an urbanized area.
This is mind-blowing to me.
Dr. Fred Luskin of Stanford had apparently overestimated how many thoughts a person has on a daily basis. Initially 60,000, other reports indicate 6,000 or so. Regardless of the semantic parameters, people have thoughts in the thousands per day, and we see about the same number of ADS or more, or less each day the Earth circles the Sun.
Here’s Mayo on Cognitive Overload.
Welcome Back.
If you’re clicking the links and reading up on the topic from better experts than myself, you’re now somewhat aware of popcorn brain and cognitive overload.
How I Mitigate Popcorn Brain & CO
Forbes centers around limiting technology, cultivating personal awareness, and setting up productive routines.
While not always completely proud of how I run every single day in my life, home, and for my loved ones…I am still proud of how I believe I’ve managed these phenomena.
First off, a great proportion of the last 20 years of my life were spent in a physical space, helping people directly in front of me with granular steps in achieving their hopes and dreams.
Next, my phone’s been silent for over 15 years. Notifications or ringtones come to me, not the people around me, or invading what that person says in front of me (most of the time).
Each day begins and ends at least 60 minutes disconnected to people outside of my home.
I organize work meetings and collaborative sessions to solely focus on one topic: the person in front of me and how we’re working in a symbiotic relationship while hurtling through space on a massive space ball circling a black hole.
In Conclusion,
Best wishes in your adventure — ‘popcorn brain’ and cognitive overload do have problematic facets just like anything else. In the end, humans and our intelligence quotient have evolved with technology and learning, where learning is the speed with which a person adjusts their behavior for their own metrics of success be they internally or externally influenced.