Junk food for the brain.

[ZenRaiden]

What do you consider good food for the mind and junk food for the mind.
In my book TV that is cable is considered junk food.
Watching drama thrillers or romance(torture) and slapstick(depend type) of comedy.

I consider some books junk food.
I consider some books good food. Usually bestsellers are good. Not always.
But there are also information that my mind just can't not because they are bad, but because they suck.
What is your take?

 

[Hourglass]

If only we could put certain pieces of information consumed in the “junk” box of our minds and never look at it again. Unfortunately the mind doesn’t work like that and the things we put into the “junk” category sometimes comes back tenfold…

I think the “seed” of junk food for the mind can be anything that creates addiction and dependency, yet when it comes to information that can be used for good i.e. STEM education that somehow is easily consumable, then it could be healthy food for the mind

I can give an example of the effects of informational “junk food” just to have a picture to imagine:

One is scrolling endlessly though a shopping site (source of junk thoughts and desires) of things that can be bought

The act of buying can be addictive in different ways to different people

Let’s imagine two people, person A & person B

One one side of the spectrum, person A will buy one or a few things that are necessary or well within their “disposable income”

On the other side of the spectrum, person B will buy things to fill an empiness and makes purchases that exceed far beyond what is necessary or what is within their “disposable income” in order to try to fill the void temporarily. Over the course of X years the person is in insurmountable debt. What was the cause? One would argue that existence of the shopping site does not necessarily create addiction in itself, because if a shopping site was not encouraging or intuitive enough it would go out of business.


Is Person B at greater risk of becoming a hoarder than Person A? Possibly, given their means.

But person A could still exhibit hoarding behavior without being socially defined as a hoarder, just because this person has the means for hoarding behavior to be distributed or organized or taken care of , and so it might not feel negatively impacted by hoarding behavior.

I think of junk food for the brain as anything that leads to suboptimal behavior. There is probably more to it than that, but this is my immediate and unfiltered train of thought.

 

[dr froyd]

even the dumbest cat videos can contain aspects that draws the mind to interesting questions

yet there one thing which cannot possibly make you smarter in any way, and is 100% waste of time. In fact it is so dumb, so stripped of any intellectual activity that it is toxic to the human mind: sports

 

[sushi]

walnut blueberries, omega 3 fish.

 

[birdsnestfern]

I don't see tv or entertainment. games or vacations as bad things at all, they give you an escape and that is healthy in most cases if you are stressed or tired and need to escape.

I see toxic people that yell a lot as junk food, and anything that stresses you out, excess noise, fear, worry, pointless data that clutters your mind, restaurant orders that you have to memorize short term and forget, a lot of details in school that just cause data banks of useless information.


Brain foods: Fish, Beef, Greens, Magnesium, Whole Wheat, Wheat Germ, Probiotics, Vitamin B, B12, Grapefruit, Oranges, Coffee, Sleep, Relaxation, Laughter, Play, Being in Love, Feeling Connected or Cared for, Hugs, Light learning, Spiritual and Metaphysical learning, Learning new skills, etc.

Junk: Chips, Cheetos, Donuts, Grease, too much Sodium, carbohydrates without protein and hormones in fat and a lot of dairy.

 

[ZenRaiden]

If only we could put certain pieces of information consumed in the “junk” box of our minds and never look at it again. Unfortunately the mind doesn’t work like that and the things we put into the “junk” category sometimes comes back tenfold…

Yes, there are things that make us dumber, but even Junk food ergo the real food still feeds us. Although its unhealthy.
But our minds are associative. So sometimes even the junk information comes in handy. Though what I am looking for is stuff that simply hurts the brain in long run, but makes us perhaps happy in the short run. I would say.

I think the “seed” of junk food for the mind can be anything that creates addiction

My personal perception of addiction is that its anything we continue to do even beyond healthy living. But hobbies are kind of healthy addiction, but many hobbies are neither smart or productive, yet are good for our health.
From psychology I learned that a lot of times overtaxing our minds can be bad too.
Kind of like going to the gym and lifting only heavy weights like STEM for mind.
It makes us buff, but also terribly bad at the simple things. Kind of like weight lifters not being able to do a head stand or a regular roll, or stand on one leg etc.
Just analogy if you understand what I mean.

For instance people like Wittgenstein were feared even by academics, because he was way too intense, he would just stare people down and talk smart at them too much and people were genuinely afraid of him.

On the other side of the spectrum, person B will buy things to fill an empiness

Generally yes. Addiction is filling an unmet need.

I think of junk food for the brain as anything that leads to suboptimal behavior. There is probably more to it than that, but this is my immediate and unfiltered train of thought.

No there is not much more to it. Suboptimal is perfect way to describe it.

 

[ZenRaiden]

even the dumbest cat videos can contain aspects that draws the mind to interesting questions

Cat videos are not junk food for me. They are psychological need. I don't have pets, and I like animals. And a kitten can make me happy for 25 hours a day. SO its definitely not junk. Intellectually its bunk, but as long as its something like fulfilling a emotional need then I don't think its wrong. I also watch dog grooming vids and carpet cleaning vids. Also ASMR. None of those are for learning though. They are like dessert for emotions.
If I were to take this from intellectual vantage point then yes its junk, but I mean info that is there to "give information" but leads to suboptimal results.
Ergo kind of like reading the tabloid news.
Plus honestly I think kitten videos are a real fast way to fulfill emotional need. Albeit imperfectly, but still better than none at all. Ergo not having the option would mean I would have a emotional need that would be unfulfilled and I would be low on morals, so I would be less happy.

yet there one thing which cannot possibly make you smarter in any way, and is 100% waste of time. In fact it is so dumb, so stripped of any intellectual activity that it is toxic to the human mind: sports

I loled, because I did not expect this. Though I like moving my body, but I do not understand sports viewing. Like I would never go to a stadium and watch people kick the ball. But doing physical activities I do not expect to get a Nobel prize any time soon.

 

[ZenRaiden]

walnut blueberries, omega 3 fish.

I meant metaphorically. Not actual food, but information=food=brain. Just to clear it up.

 

[ZenRaiden]

I see toxic people that yell a lot as junk food, and anything that stresses you out, excess noise, fear, worry, pointless data that clutters your mind, restaurant orders that you have to memorize short term and forget, a lot of details in school that just cause data banks of useless information.

Personally I think the data in school is OK, because they cause our brains to connect.
What I find abhorrent about school is the whole set up and the fact we spend there our youth in the most fragile and most biggest growth spurt years, learning crap that we basically don't need at all.
And of course the lack of "proper teaching" because if we learning something the right way its 1000 times more potent than learning crap the wrong way.
But I kind of agree with what you mean.
I just think its not the information that kill our brains in schools, its the crappy habits we learn.

 

[ZenRaiden]

Just caveat, fish are good brain food, so long as they are not toxic.

 

[Drvladivostok]

Static consumption is Junkfood, add entertaning value and you have cocaine sprinkled junk-food. Tik tok and reddit is the equivalent of a cocaine factory.

Goodfood is engaging utilisation, the one where you need to turn the old cogs for you to take a bite, Five star dinner is when the food taste so weird you have to dissemination and compare the taste to other foods that it change your prespective on restaurant choice.