Where Have Our Thoughts Gone?

  •   Mon, Apr 28 2025
  •   By Anil Aron Victor D’Souza

April 28, 2025

There was a time, not so long ago, when we experienced the one thing that truly made our thoughts churn and our minds wander in worlds that only we could create. Yes, boredom, a phenomenon we seldom experience these days.

When was the last time you got bored? Probably years ago, when the now small, archaic block of plastic in our hands was tied up to a pole outside one’s house. It wasn’t the best, but compared to today's mobile phones, it was a blessing. When you stepped away from it, it didn’t bother you. You never realized how many people tried to reach you, nor did you feel guilty for not answering. Ah! the good old days.

Even the arrival of mobile phones in my teenage years seemed like a gift at first—until they shrank and evolved into tiny, all-powerful devices. The introduction of touchscreens didn’t just make us more connected; it enslaved us to these gadgets, forever altering the way we engage with an online world that, while offering convenience, often paints a picture of false happiness and endless perfection, where everything appears to be a bed of roses.

Anyways, back to the question I was seeking an answer to- where have our thoughts gone?

When I was growing up, power cuts were a regular part of life (not that much has changed now, except that we’ve grown wiser—planning our chores well in advance, especially on Tuesdays, because you just know it’s coming). Every time the power went out, we’d gather outside, staring at trees, birds, and the sky, letting our thoughts drift into completely unnecessary but strangely comforting territories. But we thought—and that was something.

Television was state-run, and the idea of “binge-watching” or choosing what to watch didn’t exist. We were at the mercy of program schedules printed in newspapers. If a good show or movie was coming up, I’d be showered and seated five minutes early, praying with all my might that the electricity gods would show mercy. Most of the time, TV was just an evening ritual—nobody really cared about what was on during the day, because we were out. Always out. Indoors was only if we were sick! And when there was power cut in the night, we went back to think, staring at the stars, that were visible to the naked eye, back then. Yes, Think.

Sundays were sacred—reserved for cricket matches in the neighbourhood. The entire week was dedicated to practice. And when friends didn’t show up (which was more often than we liked), we’d make do—throwing the ball at a wall, or perfecting our shots with a cricket ball stuffed into a sock, hanging from a rope tied to a ceiling hook. And when thirst or tiredness creeped, we would sit on the sand mound or under a tree and , yes you are right- think.

Once upon a time, our minds used to wander. Now, they buffer.

Thanks to the marvel of modern engineering and some disturbingly persistent lithium-ion batteries, our phones never die. In fact, they’re now so charged, they could probably power a small village in rural India. And just in case that miraculous 100% battery isn’t enough; we carry power banks that could outlive a camel in the desert. And what do we do with all this uninterrupted power and infinite access?

We spend it—almost entirely—on the two most viewed apps in human history. You know the ones. The ones that exist solely to benefit the people who invented them and the investors who now own half the planet. I am sure neither of the aforementioned are going to read this article!

Gone are the days when power cuts meant sitting under a tree, watching birds, and entertaining intrusive thoughts about literally anything. Now, we sit in darkness, faces illuminated by our phones, doom-scrolling through curated chaos.

We spend these precious off-the-grid moments (ironically, still on the grid) admiring the carefully constructed lives of complete strangers. People who have probably used 78 filters, a ring light, industrial-grade makeup, and 112 takes just to pretend they “woke up like this” on a Caribbean beach or next to a mildly disinterested lion at the Masai Mara.

Instead of being social, we now measure our lives by how digitally social we appear. Real-life friendships? Optional. Social media reactions? Essential.

I believe we have created a world which will never be good enough for us- because we actually live it without the soothing music at the background. Why is there only noise in my life, whereas that person’s life is so good? Well, there are our thoughts. The tragedy, of course, isn’t that we compare ourselves to these fantasy lives. The tragedy is that we’ve stopped questioning it. We no longer think. Or worse, we think we’re thinking. We aren’t.

Back in the day, when I was young, the first thing I did in the morning, was possibly a short prayer, but now it is – yes, the bloody brick! Life has changed - the highly social beings, spend their mornings, looking at how many appreciative remarks they have got, whereas less social beings spend theirs, by consuming the lives of others like it’s a breakfast buffet of beautifully photoshopped despair, scrolling down entire mountains of other people’s online personas. Mindless scrolling has become so addictive that we would not even mind seeing some random guy in Timbuktu, carving statues using dried dung, while we are sitting, struggling to move our own dung!

This is where our thoughts have disappeared. Yes, our thoughts haven’t just meandered. They’ve packed up, left the building, and unsubscribed from this reality.

But my worry is not the disappearance of thoughts, it is the complete ceasing of it.

There is a breed of gurus that have sprung up in this space. Daniel Fernandes, arguably one of the best stand-up comedians in the present era, is spot on when he spoke about 25-year-old life coach giving 40 to 60-year-olds, life lessons and the worst part, the older lot, taking it gleefully! What life?

These influencers have created an alternative economy and people are trying their best to hop on this bandwagon- sick gurus advising on health, people who can’t boil water turning to be experts in food, people who hardly read reviewing books ( of course paid!), pretty lassies becoming yoga goddesses in short tight knickers offering 10% discounts on their carefully curated classes, young men who have not worked anywhere advising grown men on how to run businesses, and the millions of people like me who follow every one of the above and NOT THINK ANYMORE.

Meanwhile, the actual experts—the ones who studied, practiced, earned their stripes—have either gone silent, grown invisible, or been algorithmically buried beneath a 16-year-old adolescent, giving skincare lessons.

So here we are. The Age of Information. The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence. And the Death of Actual Intelligence.

Well, I don’t know if I should disclose this. I used AI to write this. Yes, that’s right. Because I am artificially intelligent, but naturally stupid.

Have a great day! Just make sure to post about it.

 

 

 
By Anil Aron Victor D’Souza
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