“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.” ― Oscar Wilde
We are a curious people. We desire to know ourselves, to understand the world, to relate to those around us, and to learn new skills. This is good curiosity. We ought to encourage it in our children and in ourselves. After all, when we lose our curiosity about life, we take our first step away from influencing it.
I am certainly not against curiosity.
But I am against being curious about everything. And I am all for a limited approach. I am a supporter of intentionally discerning what is appropriate to be curious about. Because you can not grow in one area of life if you are curious about all.
There is freedom to be found in limited curiosity. And there is actually greater opportunity to be found in limiting it than can be found in letting it run unchecked.
Our world has become a constant feed of information and entertainment. And without an intentional, limited approach to curiosity, our minds are left to wander into all areas of society that do not directly concern us. These wanderings keep us from effectiveness. Consider for just a moment some of the things we may concern ourselves with during any given day:
- Celebrity gossip.
- Intimate life details of old friends/neighbors.
- Accomplishments/failures of others.
- Entertainment television/news.
- Political affairs.
- Technological rumors.
- Scandals.
Our information age has made unbridled curiosity a constantly available distraction. With a simple click of the mouse or swipe of the thumb, we are instantly transported into a world that will gladly meet our every questioning. They will encourage us to seek them out. When we do, they will encourage us to concern our minds with more affairs outside our control. And in so doing, we lose all track of the immediate, beautiful world right in front of us.
We would be wise to limit our curiosity. We simply don’t need to know all that we want to know. Instead, we ought to concern ourselves with the potential and the relationships that have been entrusted to us. We would live lives of far greater significance if we did.
Image: Bailey Rae Weaver
John says
I think the difference here is curiosity for the sake of learning and growing verses being a nosey nellie who is more titillated by dirt and gossip. I have always heard that you can only keep 7 things in your conscious mind at one time – I wonder how much space we take up in our heads with unnecessary dribble. TV is the hard one for me – I love watching the History and Discovery channel but find that I only have a couple shows that I really enjoy and mostly have it on for the noise as background when I am on my phone or reading. I think that is the area I need to focus on most.
Teresa says
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
Gus says
This is great and touched on something I’ve been working through my mind for quite some time. Also the following comments regarding the news specifically are worth an essay of their own. I found that not reading or watching the news was the key for me to get out of a depression. Because I am an empathetic person, reading tragic stories was traumatizing me as if I had lived the tragedy myself in some small way and I kept reading the news and living this stress several times every single day. I didn’t realize it at the time. It’s kind if morbid that we entertain ourself with the tragedy of others. Some might call it informing themselves but we don’t need to know this information for any practical purpose which to me makes it a form of entertainment.
John says
I get that too – I am the one who always cries at movies and when watching the news. I had to stop most of my news viewing because I was constantly depressed. It seems that nowadays every little event has to be torn apart and reviewed to death – if nothing else but to fill air time.
Now, I check the news once or twice a day, on the web, where I can touch on the highlights, but have a better command of what I see and hear.
Dodie says
You forgot one that is very important: morbid curiosity. I have never seen a time when people are more interested in seeing violence, watching beheadings, looking at pictures of people torturing animals, etc. Even the recent acts of violence where people are grabbing strangers and knocking them out just for the fun of it has become its own media draw. I am becoming more and more careful about what I put in my mind. I don’t want to live with my head in the sand, but I don’t need the images of violence in my mind. Once there, they are impossible to remove. I’m guarding my heart and my mind so that I can choose peace.
Kristi says
Spot On! When curiosity pulls you away from what’s important, all perspective can be lost. If you’re sitting with your laptop open and watching tv you’re missing the life that happens right under your nose. For the sake of curiosity or being a know-it-all, the price isn’t worth it.
Jimbo99 says
While I’ll agree that being a minimalist is a great choice for living your life, it doesn’t necessarily work in certain professions. Take Technology/IT. Chasing that in any given area, you’ll find someone will require you to know hardware & software. And once you’ve been sucked into it, you become a slave to it. A few months later, you can throw it all out the window because the product lines have changed.
Karen says
I generally appreciate your posts, even ones I disagree with, but have found this one irritating. You are all for determining “what is appropriate to be curious about.”
Who will decide that for another? Who would be “appropriate?”
I realize I am being judgmental myself when I say that unless you are to expound on how some of these things (like gossip) can actually be harmful to others, stick to encouraging your readers toward minimizing distraction, and setting priorities of focus, as a minimalist approach to life– rather than judging what’s “appropriate” for someone else.
Karen says
To clarify: I am not a gossip & entertainment hound. I am expressing concern about the notion that someone else can decide what is “appropriate.” For example, if you were to decide that my interest in dog training is “inappropriate,” I would find that intrusive.