Digital Devices Diminishing Our Intellect by Robert Socha

Sitting with some friends discussing great books, reading them, and sharing them with our children and grandchildren has inspired me to remember the importance of removing myself from the digital age and sitting down with a volume to slowly take it in and devour the artistic interlude into Narnia, Frankenstein’s castle, Middle Earth, the Animal Farm, or Monte Cristo.

These books inspire us to consider good and evil and the impact and result of our choices, for they determine who we become. Today, it is easy to sit back and let someone else’s intellect determine a work’s interpretation.

It reminded me of a moment in my daughter’s collegiate career when she took a course on the great books and had a mid-term exam on Homer’s epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey. She went to college in our hometown and called me one night in a panic at about 10 PM.

Daughter: “Dad, I’m studying for my mid-term tonight, and I need to study, but none of my friends are available. Can I come home and study with you?”

I replied, “Of course, you can come over to study. I’ll be reading at the kitchen table.”

About an hour later, she walks in with her study materials. Eight pages printed front and back with quotes from the two great epics. She told me to read the quote to her, and she had to answer me with the book, Iliad or Odyssey, the chapter and verse, the author, and the context.

I shuffled the papers and read her something from the middle of the pages. To this effect, she replied, “That was Odysseus in The Odyssey,” chapter, verse, and context were all perfectly correct.

We went through the study papers for two hours and quizzed her memory. She knew the material implicitly. She never quite nailed an additional quote so perfectly, but she was within a chapter or two and always had the author and context. It was a remarkable achievement.

I told her that however she does tomorrow on the test, she knows the material and has impressed me beyond my means to express it.

Over a year later, I talked with the professor who had challenged her vociferously.

He told me something that has deeply inspired me to challenge myself to read and memorize, a discipline I am still working on today. He said something to this effect:

“Robert, the capacity for the human brain to memorize something is beyond our wildest expectations.”

After searching multiple pockets and finding his smartphone, he pulled it out and held it in the air, continuing, “These devices have stolen that from us, the instant access to information. Television began to steal it, but these have taken that thievery to the next level.”

Returning his phone to his pocket, he says, while grabbing his chest, “When you memorize something, it becomes part of you, and when it’s part of you, it is different.”

After this statement, he excused himself and walked away. This consequential moment marked me because life has a way of interrupting the desire to slow down, and we must discipline ourselves and immerse ourselves in something lasting and beautiful.

I believe this is why David wrote in Psalm 119 that he would hide God’s word in his heart so he might not sin against him. When the Word of God is in your heart, it becomes part of you, which is different. Taking time to remove ourselves from our digital connectivity to sail the seas with Mr. Bodich or follow The Robe on its journey after a throw of the dice can help us in our lifelong journey to discover that which is true and beautiful and good and the Lord who knit all these things together in this magnificent tapestry we call life.