I have a confession... I doomscroll on my phone. Not a lot. Just when I need mindless entertainment to relax.
One of my favourite searches? Angolan street football.
But every now and again, an advert hits my feed. It authoritatively informs me that if I signed up to their app, I could doomscroll facts instead of soccer skills.
Apparently, if I did that, I would be a genius very quickly. It must be true, the advert mentions MIT.
But I think it is nonsense.
Years ago, my next door neighbour from my student days started a podcast. You may have heard of it, it's called 'The Rest is History'. I've listened to every single episode you can access without paying to be a club member.
Despite being entertained for around 900 hours, am I an expert? Definitely not.
The only thing I can confidently say I have learnt is that the Kaiser wore the wrong shoes to Cowes. Tom or Dom mention it at least once a month.
To learn something, you need to get beyond the superficial. Learning requires your brain to build strong neural connections. Learning requires returning the same topic multiple times. Learning requires deeply challenging your way of thinking.
I don't believe scrolling through TikToks is enough to change your brain and memory, even if it is for nerds.
There is nothing wrong watching reels and nothing wrong being a nerd, but don't be fooled by the adverts. Recognise scrolling for what it is – entertainment.
Listening to 'The Rest is History' didn't make me an expert historian. It entertained me. History is full of wonderful stories, made more fun with the jokes and banter shared by Tom and Dom.
If you really want to learn something, buy or download a book. Reading a book will occupy and test your mind long enough to form the strong neural connections needed for learning.
If you don’t know which book to start with, Office Hours is here to help.
The new series will culminate in a book club episode. I will be discussing how a book has affected the life and career of a special guest.
The first book? Four Thousand Hours by Oliver Burkeman.
The first guest? You'll need to listen to Office Hours on RTL TODAY Radio to find out...
