In 2020, Americans spent an average of 7 hours and 54 minutes consuming digital media.*1 That’s nearly half of their waking life. 2 and a 1/2 of those hours were spent on social media. 58 minutes on Facebook. 30 minutes on Snapchat. 28 minutes on Instagram.*2

There’s no research, however, on how much time the average American spends analyzing said media or turning off the phone and thinking deeply about a topic. My charitable guess places it in the range of 20 minutes a day. I base this figure not just on my own acquaintances, but also a look at the 99%+ vapid posts and comments that dominate the digital world. “That’s awesome!” “??????” “@heidi41 you’ll love this!” “Great! So happy for you!” “Loved the video, very helpful.” The results of this glut of media and lack of intellectual exercise is what I call intellectual obesity. It’s a quiet epidemic that is now ruining minds and nations. But, as I’ll offer at the end of this, there’s hope. We can turn it around by living intellectually healthy lives in just a few simple steps.

The intellectual obesity epic is real. Case in point: IQ has been dropping steadily since the 1970s and it keeps going down.*3 Unlike Idiocracy, though, it’s not because the stupid are having more babies. It’s because our culture’s stupid. Food quality’s dropped. Americans are fatter and unhealthier than ever. Tech addiction. Declining schools. Exactly how these different factors weigh on the scale, though, remains unclear. Personally, I suspect the biggest and most destructive factor is intellectual obesity.

Intellectual obesity is the mental dullness that comes from living an intellectually unhealthy lifestyle. It’s caused by a combination of consuming intellectual junk food (TikTok videos of cats dancing or 1 minute clips explaining why capitalism sucks), consuming excessive healthy intellectual food (spending hours going down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia or reading too many books on Elizabethean England), and a lack of intellectual exercise (spending almost no time recollecting and analyzing media or thinking in a focused, deep, and sustained way about a topic). Just as with physical exercise, if someone’s consuming a lot of media but also exercising their intellectual faculties, it’s no problem. But if they’re like most Americans who just devour and devour information without getting off their butts and working their brain cells, they’re going to end-up intellectually obese and unhealthy. And this invisible form of ill health is far more destructive.

Although it’s difficult to measure the costs of this, they’re assuredly high based on two points: 1) IQ is a relatively accurate measure of success in life and 2) intellectual fitness forms the foundation of a virtuous personal and political life.

In study after study, higher IQs are associated with higher incomes, academic success, job performance, career potential, and creativity.*4 Although, to be frank, it shouldn’t take a number of massive studies to confirm this. Just look at the people you know from high school who were dull. Unless they had super rich parents that could buy their kid’s way to the top, most are probably not doing super well for themselves. Then think of your friends who got into Ivy League schools. Most are probably better off. Sure, some of them might’ve suffered from depression or thrown all their talent away, but statistically speaking being smart pays dividends. And, on the opposite end, consider what happens to those who have an intellectual disability (IQ in the 70s and below). They flounder professionally. Most of them will struggle to hold onto basic jobs and never rise above that.

Although IQ is partially genetically driven, as the dropping IQ rates and other studies have shown, it’s also environmental. If someone spends all day watching funny cat video compilations on YouTube and dance videos on TikTok for a majority of their waking life for several years in a row, they’re gonna end-up stupider. The bad news is that this is exactly what a majority of Americans are already doing. The good news is that this can be reversed. If someone’s in a household where literature, film, politics, and philosophy’s regularly discussed, a contemplative life encouraged, and intellectual junkfood looked down upon as the garbage it is, their IQ will bump-up in a few years.

This downward trend is worrying because intellectual fitness is fundamental in leading a virtuous personal and political life. Reason is necessary because in its absence a mind cannot weigh costs and benefits, consider evidence, reign-in destructive impulses, and discern whether an action aligns with other principles. In its absence, a man becomes an animal reacting based on his basest impulses and gradually descends into depravity. Reason, then, is the force which orders the mind and life. Intellectual obesity, then, spells disaster for its victims.

But this isn’t just an individual tragedy. It’s effects ripple out to the society at large, as citizens drive culture and policy. Virtuous, intellectually fit citizenry can better weed out scoundrels, charlatans, and baseless plans. They also serve as role models and mentors to family, friends, and colleagues. Intellectually unfit citizens, however, are easily manipulated and swindled. The hysteria and irrationality around Covid should be sufficient to show just how desperately reason’s needed and how devastating it can be when it’s in short supply. Worse, bad thinkers produce more bad thinkers via their bad modeling and mentoring. The costs of this epidemic now secretly sweeping through the country have already been high and will continue to mount if the trend isn’t reversed.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to turn this trend around: start living an intellectually healthy lifestyle (if you aren’t already). Here are four easy ways to get started:

1. Consume healthy intellectual food.
   Just like when getting into shape physically, the easiest change to make is avoiding bad foods. Less TikTok. Less Instagram and Facebook. Fewer Mr.Beast videos (sorry Mr.Beast). And don’t binge on Korean series. Do, however, find a solid book that excites you. Watch a documentary on WWII or fungi. Follow a substantive YouTuber (shout outs to my favs Lex Fridman, Michael Malice, and Jocko Willink). Like with physical fitness, moderation is key. Eating a doughnut is not a death sentence,, but feasting on them for breakfast every other day’s not ok.
2. Think more than you consume.
   The most important but more difficult step is actually doing intellectual work. If I’m guzzling super foods down at 6k calories a day, I’m gonna be a blob in no time. Same with media. Spend more time recollecting, analyzing, and applying than consuming. Most of the fitness comes from us thinking about it, not reading about it. Just like you won’t become a great quarterback by watching football for hours-and-hours without end, you won’t become a Plato by just reading his stuff all day. The work of thinking things through like Plato, though, can help get you closer. I go for a 70–30 ratio, but anything above 50 is fine.
3. Post smart, talk smart.
   Posting online or having conversations with friends is an excellent opportunity to strengthen connections, improve intellectual fitness, and talk about awesome, meaningful stuff. It can also be a chance to squander time on gossip and small talk. Don’t do the latter. If I like a video or post, I usually write a short, meaningful comment below. If I talk to friends, I bring up important topics and questions. Here again, moderation is key. Trying to talk about meaningful topics all the time can be exhausting, but, also, if a friend just wants to fritter time away on the insignificant, it might be time to find a new friend.
4. Diversify your consumption and contemplations.
   As part of a classical education, the community expected young men to be well-versed in a variety of topics: ethics, philosophy, politics, mathematics, logic, and the arts. This not only keeps thinking fresh and interesting, it also ensures one is learning and growing across multiple important dimensions. The classical topics aren’t a requirement, only to show the breadth that was once expected of the educated.

Following these small steps, I hope the downward trend can be turned upward, not only so that society can flourish, but also so that the many lives ruined by intellectual obesity can find hope, meaning, and strength again in a life ordered by reason and virtue. As with physical fitness, these changes take time and consistent effort before the gains are seen. It’s also is not a panacea. It doesn’t mean never saying something foolish or always making the right decision. It doesn’t mean being unmoved by the vicissitudes of life. What it does do, however, is give the fit a better shot, day-after-day, of living a reasoned, ordered, and noble life.

References

1. LeBow, Sara. “Shifting patterns mean US adults are spending more time with media on entertainment devices,” Insider Intelligence, January 3, 2023, https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/us-adults-spending-more-time-with-media.
2. Georgiev, Deyan. “How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media in 2022?” TechJury, January 3, 2023, https://techjury.net/blog/time-spent-on-social-media/#gref.
3. Ghajinan, Mahita. “IQ Scores Are Falling Due to Environmental Factors, Study Finds.” Time, January 3, 2023, https://time.com/5311672/iq-scores-decline-environment/.
4. Huddleston, Tom. “IQ is the № 1 Predictor of Work Success.” MSNBC, January 3, 2023. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/11/does-iq-determine-success-a-psychologist-weighs-in.html