Intellectual Obesity - Are you at Risk?

It was in the article I wrote on 1st July 2021 where I first introduced the term Intellectual Obesity. I got a few messages from people who read that article and were intrigued by the term.

They wanted to know more about it. It was their feedback spurred me to write more on this topic. So a big Thank You to all of you

I will cover Intellectual Obesity in 3 articles

In this article, I will explain the term Intellectual Obesity drawing a parallel to the Physical Obesity that we are all familiar with.

The 2nd article will be on the common symptoms of Intellectual Obesity.

?The 3rd and the final article will be on the possible consequences of Intellectual Obesity.

So lets start our journey on understanding Intellectual Obesity more intimately.

We all know what is Obesity. World Health Organisation (WHO) says that obesity globally has become an epidemic. It also says the number of obese people has increased 3 times since 1975. (Ref WHO)

Contrary to perception, WHO also says that ‘Globesity ‘ is not only seen in developed industrialized nations but also developing nations.

What has lead to this increase in epidemic? It is simple.

In the early ages food being relatively scarce and inconsistently available meant that one had to burn calories to consume calories.

The burning of calories was in balance with the consumption. ?So obesity was kept at bay.

As the access to food became more plentiful and consistent, the effort required to procure food reduced. Plus our consumption increased. Where earlier the consumption was need based , now with easy access to food we became greedy. (Believe me, I speak from personal experience J)

Thus, Obesity resulted due to

Burning of Calories to Procure Food < ?Consumption of Calories.

From food for the body let’s move to the food for the mind.

For those of you who like me grew up in the pre- internet age, the access to information was limited and it required considerable effort.?

Right from searching to accessing information was the equivalent of hunting for food.

Even a simple high school project on the Savannas would involve

1.????Ask the teacher for names of reference books

2.????Go to the school or public library

3.????Search the shelf for the book

4.????Pick up the book

5.????Find a place to sit and turn the pages

6.????Read the chapter and simultaneously note down the points of interest

7.????Then depending on the financial means, either photocopy the relevant pages or buy the book from a book store

The effort and time to get information was considerable. Gathering information for only information’s sake was a luxury few could afford.

It was more need based. And because it was need based, one would diligently try to put the information to good use.

Processing that gathered information became knowledge. Applying that knowledge became skill.

Or

Information?+ Processing = Knowledge + Application = Skill

Then came the internet. And it totally disrupted our lives. Suddenly, we could access information at the click of a mouse. Sophisticated search algorithms become so sharp that it seemed they could read our minds even before we could typing our query.

In fact it is estimated that Google processes more than 66000 search enquires every second.

So here we were like the proverbial kids in a chocolate factory, starry eyed at the plethora of chocolates before them. Grabbing every chocolate that catches their fancy and then stuffing it in the mouth.

We embraced the deluge of information that assaulted our minds every single day. Naturally our attention span became shorter.

While we were consuming information, our processing time became shorter and shorter. And with the universal constraint of 24 hours in a day, the time left for application of the knowledge became even lesser.

As a result

Information Consumed (Calories Consumed) > Knowledge (Calories burnt in processing Information ) > Skill (Calories Burnt in applying knowledge)

This is leading to the second epidemic – Intellectual Obesity.

Is it only the glut of information available that causing Intellectual Obesity?

No.

There is another enabler- Social Media platforms. The figure alongside shows the increase in usage of various social media platforms

Thanks to social media platforms we are always visible. There is actually no private space. ?And in the desire to be ‘connected and visible’ in the social media is making us consume and share?more and?information without processing it , let alone the application.

We click and share more posts than we read. ?And we process even lesser of what we read. And we apply a fraction of what we process.

Thus, the easy access to information and the desire to visible in a noisy social media has made our search for information a both a mixture of need and greed.

The result -?Intellectual Obesity

I totally understand that it is not possible to apply everything that we read. There has to be a sifting. The question is how much. I can’t even quantify on what should be the deal Information : Knowledge : Skill ratios. But, I do believe that we all should have the consciousness to reflect on how much of our information search is need based and how much is greed based.

I also have nothing against Intellectual Obesity – like physical obesity , it's a personal choice. If just gathering information makes you happy then do it. But just gathering information and not processing some of it to become knowledge, let alone applying a fraction of it so that the knowledge becomes a skill - to me is a colossal waste of time.

And time is the most important resource we have.

Shouldn't we use most of it transform ourselves or others?

In Summary-

Need Based Information (NBI)?- Healthy and does not create Intellectual Obesity

NBI??(Higher Processing) > Greater Knowledge (Increased Application) > Increased ?Skill --->Reduced Intellectual Obesity

Greed Based information (GBI)?-not Healthy and can lead to Intellectual Obesity

GBI??(Lower Processing) > Lower ?Knowledge (Minimal Application) > Minimal Skill ---> High Risk for Intellectual Obesity

Ideally the NBI/ GBI Ratio is > or =1 to reduce the risk for Intellectual Obesity

One last thing. Don't add to your Intellectual Obesity by just reading this article. If you feel this is NBI for you then please do process this.

Maybe you could also come up with your own solution to reduce it.

If yes, then please share your thoughts so that we all can keep Intellectual Obesity under control.