We Replaced Thought with Noise and Now It’s the Default

How digital culture stopped rewarding thought, and what we can do about it.

We’re louder, faster, and more reactive than ever. But we’re not thinking more, we’re thinking less. The way people respond to information, in conversation, online, at school, at work, has become immediate, intense, and noisy. It’s not clearer or more thoughtful. It’s as if everyone is speaking before they’ve even had a chance to process anything. There’s more output than ever, but less understanding. And somehow, we’ve started calling that normal.

We didn’t just lose thought. We replaced it. In schools, we reward speed. In the workplace, it’s performance. Online, it’s outrage.. Most people don’t notice it happening because the rewards are everywhere. Every like and viral soundbite reinforces one thing: say something fast, feel something strong, and move on. This isn’t just a media issue or a cultural shift. It’s all behavioral. When a system rewards noise, noise becomes the default. When thinking isn’t reinforced, when it’s not taught, modeled, or practiced, it disappears. This is not because people don’t want to think, but because they were never shown how to.

Here’s a small example. I pulled Google search trends for the past week. We can see that “facts” consistently ranked the highest, while “evidence” and “sources” lagged quite a bit behind. “Opinions” got more attention than “misinformation.” This is not just an algorithm issue, it is a habit issue. We are living in a behavioral loop that rewards speed, reaction, and certainty. Most people do not even realize that they‘ve been trained. And while I was glad to see that “facts” were the most searched, it was disappointing to see how little people are looking for the evidence and sources behind them.

What We Lose When Thinking Stops Being Reinforced

This isn’t just about attention spans or online habits. When thinking stops being reinforced, we start to lose the habits that make learning and growth possible. Curiosity fades because asking more profound questions takes more time than pulling a quick answer. Skepticism fades because it’s easier to react than to evaluate. Reflection disappears because silence isn’t rewarded, speed is. Focus gets weaker when we’re not trained to sit with complexity. Resilience fades too, because hard thinking starts to feel unfamiliar, even threatening.

We see this everywhere. In classrooms, it appears that students are trained to guess, perform, or give up, rather than think. In the workplace, it manifests as busywork and performative urgency, where people constantly do but rarely think. Online, it’s all speed, emotion, and performance, with no room left for reflection. None of this is accidental. These are the predictable outcomes of systems that reward output, not understanding. It’s not that people don’t want to think, it’s that we’ve created environments that don’t reinforce it.

It’s not just that we’ve stopped reinforcing thinking; we’ve started reinforcing something else entirely. We’ve built environments, especially digital ones, that reward immediacy, certainty, and intensity. The louder the post, the faster the reply, the more dramatic the claim, the more it spreads. We’re not just reinforcing noise, we’re conditioning people to prefer it.

It’s showing up earlier and earlier. Children are growing up inside systems that train them to respond fast, feel strongly, and move on, but not to sit with uncertainty, wrestle with an idea, or reflect on how they know what they know. It’s not just that we’ve changed the conversation. We’ve changed the contingencies that shape how young people learn, communicate, and relate.

This is part of a much larger pattern, and we’re starting to see the cost. In The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt outlines the ways digital life has reshaped childhood and adolescence. Kids today aren’t just more anxious because they spend more time online. They’re more anxious because they’ve grown up in environments that reinforce avoidance over tolerance, reaction over regulation, and performance over process. They’ve never had the chance to develop the habits that enable thinking and resilience.

We’re reinforcing speed, certainty, and external validation from the moment kids go online. And then we’re surprised when they struggle with ambiguity, critical thinking, or emotional regulation. Behavior follows reinforcement. We’ve been reinforcing the wrong things for over a decade.

Rebuilding the Habits That Make Thinking Possible

While the systems around us have shifted, the science of behavior gives us a way back. If thinking has disappeared because it’s no longer reinforced, then we need to start reinforcing it, intentionally, consistently, and out loud. That means building environments where reflection is practiced, not rushed.
Where questions are celebrated, not bypassed.
Where students and adults are taught how to evaluate, not just react.
And where the reinforcement doesn’t go to the loudest voice, but to the most thoughtful one.

That’s why I created my new live course: Reason Over Reaction: How to Think in a Digital World

This three-part series, starting July 23, brings together behavioral science, educational practice, and real-world strategies to help teachers, leaders, parents, and professionals:

· Understand how reinforcement shapes thinking (and unthinking)

· Rebuild the habits of curiosity, skepticism, and reflection

· Create practical, sustainable routines that promote thoughtful behavior, even in noisy systems

If you’ve been feeling like we’re losing something vital, the ability to think, speak thoughtfully, and teach others to do the same, this course was built for you. It’s not just about thinking. It’s about restoring your sense of control in a world that feels increasingly chaotic. It’s about reclaiming your purpose as an educator, a parent, a leader, or a thinker, and building habits that reinforce what matters. This is for people who are ready to stop reinforcing noise and start reinforcing thought. It is for people who still believe that clarity, reflection, and rigor matter, even if the culture forgets.

If that’s you, I hope you’ll join us, either by becoming a paid subscriber or registering just for the course. Let’s rebuild the habits our culture forgot to reinforce.

Notes and Registration:

• All sessions will be recorded and shared with paid subscribers and those who register separately.

• Live participation encouraged, but not required

• Free for paid subscribers (no extra sign-up needed)

• Or register separately here

Reference:

Haidt, J. (2024). The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Penguin Press.

Photo by Barefoot Communications on Unsplash