Why Thinking Was Always Discouraged. Now It’s Penalised.
How an ancient human vulnerability has been systematically exploited by modern systems
Human ‘Cognitive decline’ has been a topic of discussion around the world over the past decade. We are losing our critical thinking abilities and, in effect gradually degenerating the only USP that helped our species dominate the world. The irony of the situation is that while we know this is happening, we are doing nothing about it other than pointing fingers at the usual suspects. The usual suspects being the overuse of social media, and lately, our growing reliance on Artificial Intelligence.
Various studies have by now established that our brain is inherently lazy, and not equipped to handle the cognitive overload caused by infinite sources of information, news, and social media it is bombarded with. Hence, the brain takes shortcuts. We now prefer to skim rather than analyse, scroll rather than understand, accept rather than research. And this has become a vicious cycle.
Well, we all know this. So why are we writing one more piece about it? Because none of the above ask the uncomfortable questions.
Have we been pointing blame at the easy targets?
Are we just looking at the niches and missing the larger picture?
Have we been asking the wrong questions?
The question is not whether social media and AI are driving the decline of thinking; the question is - Are these two the symptoms or the disease?
Human beings have always preferred cognitive ease over effort. It is not a new moral panic. It is a constant human trait. AI and social media are just being made the scapegoats.
We can test this argument in any chronology, macro to micro, past to present. The same human shortcut expresses itself differently across domains. Let us start with the macro and large-scale first.
Religion
From time immemorial, we have surrendered independent thinking to religious authorities. This is an ancient human pattern, and I am no outlier. Religion was born as a set of stories, rules and practices that satisfy basic human curiosity about our origin, how to live life and where we go after death.
Religion is just convenient. First, convenient for the leaders to bind populations together and make groups more manageable and malleable. Second, convenient for the brain to believe and comply. It is such a strong brain-numbing hook that it has forever been exploited for selfish motives. We are just witnessing this now at a larger scale and ferocity.
Politics & Leadership
The world over, democracies are becoming weaker, and polarisation is growing. People are surrendering logic and reason to political authority and rhetoric. And this is also not a new phenomenon. Wasn’t blind political obedience able to convince Nazis to commit the atrocities they did during WWII?
Human brain’s laziness is not only encouraged, but also exploited by the people in power.
Today, we see this amplified to another level, aided by modern tools that generate and propagate fake news, propaganda, and conspiracy theories. Again, AI here is just a tool being used to exploit our inherent weaknesses.
Media
Objective, well-researched, long-form, fact-based news has given way to sensationalism and entertainment in news media. Why? Because we incentivize such shallow, polarised journalism with our valuable attention, quick reaction and virality.
Often, independent journalism questions both sides and demands a deeper analysis of beliefs. So, what is convenient for our mind? Clicking and sharing entertaining news that supports existing beliefs, powered by algorithms that support confirmation bias. No wonder, independent media is being penalised and struggling to survive the world over.
Now, coming down to a few examples closer home.
Innovation
Tech brands are built on both innovation and lore. But brands like Apple have trumped that formula. With each successive launch in recent years, they have proven brand mythology sells even with minimal innovation.
Consumers choose familiarity, cognitive comfort and perceived value rather than deep evaluation of what is better and more innovative. The argument is not against Apple, but against the consumer behaviour that chooses lore over real substance.
Work & Corporate Culture
Modern work environment rewards compliance, speed, and predictability. Deep thinking is inefficient, slow, and destabilizing for organizations. Work today is more about following templates, processes, tools and playbooks rather than thinking. Thinking is unpredictable and unproductive work. The result - Mediocrity not just survives but thrives. Babblers rise in the system, while the real minds die out.
Across religion, politics, technology, brands, and work, the common theme we see is Cognitive Outsourcing. The human brain prefers to outsource thinking to systems, leaders, religious beliefs, brand lore and templates.
The human brain was always lazy. This is our permanent vulnerability. Modern economic, political, organizational, and cultural systems now reward, accelerate, and industrialize this vulnerability. AI, social media and the rise of technology are not the disease here. These are just the tools accelerating the decline of thinking at scale. These are the tools we are using to stay conveniently lazy.
Independent thinking is costly and hard. It was always inconvenient, but now it is often penalised.