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Digital detox coach and author Molly told Bored Panda that technology and entertainment are an ever-present fact in our modern lives. "We are inundated with devices, entertainment, divided attention. Living in 2022 means living in an onslaught of loud, overstimulating data consumption," she said.
"The smartphone steals our attention, our most valuable commodity. Minute by minute, we settle for passive consumption instead of doing the work to think, ponder, imagine. Humans are born creators. But we settle for easy, if it’s available. And boy is it available."
Molly pointed out that the shower is one of the last places where people can actually be alone, with their thoughts, without a lot of the noise that makes up our lives. However, this shouldn't be the case. A digital detox, a break from technology and media consumption, can allow us to feel peaceful and at ease outside of the shower, too.
"When we give ourselves an extended tech break, it gives us space to really assess our media consumption. I did this for my kids, and subsequently myself a few years ago. We were pleasantly surprised by the results—longer attention spans, better moods," she said that the benefits of doing this are great and clear to see.
"After a lot of research, I realized that our generation has crept into a new normal. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to tech consumption, the goal is to put the digital in its right place. That probably looks a little different for everyone. But here’s an easy scale: when you look at your screen time in your settings, does your actual time spent on apps match your ideal?" she urged everyone to be honest with themselves about this.
"If not, try some physical barriers. Keep your phone in its charger instead of on your person. Turn off all notifications for all apps. Calendar time for solitude, journaling, quiet. Humans need this." And that means that you'll start having creative thoughts about the world not just in the shower, but pretty much everywhere. As it should be.
The Shower Feelings project is wildly successful. It has over 2.5 million followers on its Instagram page, as well as a further 130.1k fans following its Twitter account. Altogether, that’s a huge number of people who are reached by someone’s wet musings errr I mean shower thoughts.
A while back, my colleague wrote about the r/Showerthoughts subreddit, an entirely separate project, though it shares a similar logo with Shower Feelings. She reached out to Nancy K. Napier, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor at Boise State University and author of Unfolding Curiosity.
Professor Napier hinted that showering is almost a form of meditation. Think about it: you’re in an enclosed space with warm, comforting water running over you, and you’re letting your mind wander where it wants to.
"As you wash yourself for those three or five or ten minutes, you can let your mind wander and that's often when an idea will hit. Also, during these times when we're with our families in shutdowns, it might be one of the few chances to be alone with your thoughts," she told Bored Panda.
However, people find it hard for their thoughts to drift in other circumstances. There’s just too much information running wild in our environments.
"To have the experience of a wandering mind, we need to intentionally turn OFF the extra information and think about nothing,” Napier told us.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that showers are somehow entirely unique or that they’re the only place where you can let your mind be still, creative, and freer than usual.
"I read recently that taking a walk is another great place for ideas, but the key is to simply walk. Leave the radio and podcasts at home,” the professor suggested that if you go on a walk, try to enjoy your surroundings without distractions.
"Then, while walking, look in three places and ideas will come: look above eye level (at buildings, trees), look straight ahead, and look on the ground," Napier gave us some pointers for the next time we’re on a walk.
"Many of us are looking for ways to do things differently to get better, which is the ultimate goal of creativity." According to the professor, we can find inspiration in other people’s shower thoughts. That, in turn, can lead us to generate entirely new ideas of our own. So it’s useful to listen to other people’s (sometimes random) musings.
