Analysis of the Merits of Thinking in Free Time - Essay Example

A Critical Analysis of the Merits of Thinking in Free, Unstructured and Unscheduled Time Creativity, innovation or, any term or idea which refers to the process of giving birth to something new, desirable and ambitious is essentially the result of a person’s contemplation in his free, unstructured and unscheduled time. Obviously, contemplation is not associated with anything planned and scheduled thinking. Instead, it is a man’s inborn as well as existential inclination to think and sometimes, to do something desirable in his free and unstructured time. According to Frazier, it is not fooling around; it necessarily begins with “fooling around”. Also this contemplation may beget money; but it necessarily may consume one’s money and time for its own sake. Contemplations or actions in marginal places like “blue sky research zone” (Frazier 54), etc may be either fruitful or fruitless. Arguing for the importance of free, unstructured and unscheduled time in producing something great, Frazier says, “Every purpose-filled activity we pursue in the woods as just fooling around” (Frazier 54). Here, Frazier uses the term, “fooling around”, to refer to unscheduled and unstructured time of thinking. Indeed, Frazier, with the ‘child’ metaphor in his essay, wants to remind his readers that hobnobbing in the woods teaches a child along the path of his growth to search for something precious in the woods. It necessarily tells the readers that the benefit of thinking in free and unstructured time may beget something valuable for the thinker. In terms of the importance of thinking in free and unstructured time, Nicholas Carr’s opinion also concurs with that of Frazier. In order to convince his readers, he portrays two pictures side by side. One is the picture of Nathaniel Hawthorne sitting in the “green seclusion of Sleepy Hollow and lost himself in contemplation” (Carr 76). Another is “the city dwellers going about their daily business” (Carr 76). Carr’s first example necessarily draws the readers’ attention to a great thinker’s contemplation in free and unstructured time in contrast to people’s engagement in daily scheduled activities. The implied indication in this contrast is that contemplation or thinking in free and unscheduled time helped Nathaniel Hawthorne to beget his great novels. In contrast to this great writer’s prominence, the city dwellers who remain engaged in their daily scheduled activities pass their lives unnoticed. Referring to some research papers, he further says that a person’s cognitive ability and performance such reasoning, perceiving, memorizing, etc increase significantly by his contemplation in free and unstructured time. People, who spend their time in a secluded park or near natural scenery, enjoy these enhanced mental abilities in contrast to those who live amid the dins and bustles of the busiest street of a city. In this regard, he quotes the researchers, “simple and brief interactions with nature can produce marked increases in cognitive control” (Carr 77). In fact, Carr tells much about the dangers of not having much free and uncontrolled time in which to think than Frazier does. He warns his readers that the endless and mesmerizing stimulations of the Net as well as of the city can be both “invigorating and inspiring” and “exhausting and distracting”. (Carr 77) The danger of these mesmerizing stimulations is that “they can easily…overwhelm the quieter mode of thought” (Carr 77). Referring to Antonio Damasio’s research, Carr infers that the free and unstructured time is necessary for the “quieter mode of thought” which itself leads the thinker to feel humanly qualities such as compassion, love, sympathy and other emotions. Even moral decision requires a man’s contemplation in free time, as Carr quotes, “For some kinds of thoughts, especially moral decision-making about other people’s social and psychological situations, we need to allow for adequate time and reflection” (Carr 78). But lack of such hours in a personal life eventually may lead him or her to be rigorously calculative, in Carr’s words, like software or a machine which is programmed to respond according to what it receive without any in-depth thinking. Carr predicts that the problem of such mechanization of man in modern age is that man will not be able to think of others in a social and humanly way. I agree on most points which these two authors have made in their articles. Their proposition that reflections free and unstructured time are very much necessary in a person’s life. I also agree that ‘blue-sky-research’ (as Frazier calls it) and pastime in close contact with nature (according to Carr) are required for “quieter mode of thoughts”. But my question is: how many modern individuals can manage such free and unstructured time to spend in touch of nature and to think quietly? Will a person necessarily learn sympathy, empathy, morality, etc, if he or she gets enough of such free time? There is the probability that a person will simply waste away his free time without any useful thinking. Contemplation or ‘blue sky’ has their own pleasure, which the structured and scheduled time of thinking cannot give. But the problem of free and unstructured time of thinking is that it will consume days, months and years without producing any desirable results because of the thinker’s inability to choose what to think in a meaningful way. Therefore, I think, thinking in free and unstructured time in close contact with nature is probably the best option, but certainly not the only option. There are other options too. If a person is alert and attentive enough about when to think and what to think, he or she can overcome the lack of free and unstructured time. Carr’s fear that people will be calculative like machine, or selfish, or that they will fail to earn humanly emotions is, a great extent, is meaningless. It is because if he does not know when to think and what to think, he will think about the same thing, in his free time, what he used to think during his structured and scheduled time. I myself also used to commit this same mistake of thinking the wrong thing during my free hours. Now I know that I can contemplate whenever I get the chance. I can think while brushing my teeth, waiting in the queue, and even in the traffic jam in my car. I used to think the one who is the unhappiest in this world. But after reading his article, now I can come out of my self-centered realm and think that I am not the only one who suffers in the traffic jam. May be, there is a dying patient who has been caught in the jam. Thus I earned compassion and empathy for others. Now, I can make meaning of the mere events which usually happen in front of me in my daily life. I think, if I had not learnt how to come out of my self-centered thought, when to think and what to think meaning, I would not have been able to earn those humanly qualities by thinking in my free, unstructured and unscheduled time for years and even for decades. In their articles Nicholas Carr and Ian Frazier have successfully narrated the effects, consequences and benefits of a person’s thinking in free, unscheduled and unstructured time. Whereas Frazier emphasizes on the fact that people thinking and marginal activities in their free and structured time are the preconditions of something innovative and meaningful, Carr points out that people’s quieter mode of thought in their free and unstructured time can enhance their cognitive abilities such as moral reasoning, emotional outputs, sympathy, empathy, passion, etc. He further warns his readers that the lacks of free and unstructured time in a man’s life can necessarily steal away these humanly qualities. In my opinion, both of these authors’ claim is justifiable except for their emphasis on the indispensability of the secluded and quiet natural setting with a person’s contemplation in free and unstructured time. In my opinion, thinking meaningfully is also possible in the crowd, if a person knows what to think and how to think, coming out of his or her self-centered universe. Works Cited Carr, Nicholas. “The Shallows”, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brain. Norton and Company. 2010 Frazier, Ian. “In Praise of Margins”, Outside Magazine. The Willey Agency, 1998. Read More