In class it was suggested to listen to the Doodling Ted Talk by Sunni Brown.
The definition of a doodle has change throughout history but there has never been a flattering definition for it.
- 17th Century – A simpleton or a fool
- 18th Century – To swindle or ridicule
- 19th Century – A corrupt politician
- NOW – To dawdle, to dillydally, to monkey around, to make meaningless marks, to do something of little value, substance or import, to do nothing
No one wants to be known for doodling at work or school if it means doing nothing as doing nothing at work or school would be totally inappropriate.
People get scolded at for doodling by teachers and bosses, there is powerful cultural norm against doodling in settings where we are supposed to be learning or doing something.
Freud believed that you could analyse peoples psyches based on their doodle, this is not accurate though but it does contribute to people not wanting to share their doodles as they don’t want to be labelled a certain way.
Our culture is so intensely focused on verbal information that we’re almost blinded to the value of doodling when in reality doodling is an incredibly powerful tool, and it is a tool that we need to remember and to re-learn.
Real/New definition for doodling ” Doodling is really to make spontaneous marks to help yourself think”
People who doodle when they’re exposed to verbal information retain more of that information than those who don’t. We think doodling is something you do when you lose focus, but in reality, it’s something that you do to stop yourself from losing focus. Doodling also encourages creative problem-solving and deep information processing.
There are four ways learners intake information
- Visual
- Auditory
- Reading/Writing
- Kinaesthetic
In order for us to properly take in the information and use it we have to engage at least two of those modalities or we have to engage one of those modalities coupled with an emotional experience. Doodling engages all four of the modalities with the chance of having an emotional experience
In a research done it was discovered that doodling is native to us but we deny ourselves our basic instinct
Doodling should no longer have a bad commutation and it should be introduced to classrooms and boardrooms as it can be leveraged as a portal through which we move people into higher levels of visual literacy. Doodling is one of the greatest allies of intellectual thought.
I personally really liked this talk as I felt that it gave me a new perspective on doodling. I had always known that doodling had a bad connotation but I had never stopped to think about why that is. This Ted Talk made me realise that doodling is something that we all do, it is something that is within us all and part of our instincts and it is there for a reason as it help us to remember more and do more with the information remembered. Doodling should not be treated like something that is taboo as it is one of our greatest assets