Jieun doodles when she listens. To lectures, sermons, whatever. In the past, it used to bother me, because it felt to me like she was not fully paying attention. Because I can’t do that, two things at once. I can’t listen to music while I work. I can’t have the TV on in the background while doing anything else. And I can’t doodle while listening to something; my mind can only focus on one thing at a time. So I assumed the same of Jieun, that she wasn’t really paying attention when she doodled. But she insisted that doodling actually helped her focus more.
Well lo and behold, a recent TED talk argues that doodling does in fact facilitate better comprehension. As happens a lot, Jieun is proved right by science. Who knew. So maybe my endless drawings of Wolverine and Batman during youth group sermons served a greater purpose after all.