Friend or Foe?

Remember the last time you watched a movie that you know nothing about except from the critics' comments about it in the newspaper? Do you think what the critics said have any effect on your view about the movie?  No?......Think again.

We are constantly being influenced by our environment whether we realise it or not. Take the example mentioned above. If the critics would have give negative feedbacks about the movie, we would have probably agree to the same thing too,especially if he/she is a renowned critic. You don't even need to watch the trailer but you already have a mindset about the movie before you step inside the cinema. For that reason, film producers are cautious of critics. It could end up as movie hits or it could end up....nowhere.

An experiment was conducted where volunteers were given an unpleasant  sour orange juice but beforehand, the volunteers were shown advertisements about the  drink conveying the message that 'it is refreshing'. The result was, most of them agree with the ads when they were asked by the experimenter. However this only works to a certain extent. You can't give the volunteers oranges and try to convince them via ads that it is a baboon...but you can try though.

Another experiment was conducted where a number of volunteers was blindfolded. Each of these volunteers were given Pepsi-Cola and Coca-cola drinks. Then, the experimenter asked which tastes better and most of them answered Pepsi-Cola. The experiment was repeated but this time the volunteers were not blindfolded. When the experimenter asked the question majority opt for Coca-cola.

What I am trying to conclude here is that we are constantly being influenced and on top of that, we are easily influenced. This supports the statement "whoever controls the media,controls the world". This is on a large scale but when we focus down to individuals ,friends is the first word to come when we  talk about influence. For that reason there is hikmah ( wisdom ) when the Prophet reminded us about choosing our friends. They influence us more than what we realise.

I believe that we also need to struggle to spread the words of Islam via media like making islamic movies, t-shirts, animation are among the examples.



Below are one of the islamic videos.

Pay attention !

Paying attention means placing your full conscious on only one element in your sight. Example, as you are reading this article, your attention is shifted only to this text as your brain strives to understand what I am trying to say here. You are not fully aware what is happening around you althought it maybe in your plain sight, a mosquito may just has passed by or your little brother had just tried his new crayon on your biology book behind this laptop you are using now but your attention is not there.

Our brain can not  pay attention at more than one thing at once which demonstrates how amazing our brain is and how weak we are. Allah Sees everything and is fully aware of it while we on the other hand, sees only what our eyes behold us and even that, we can only be aware of an element in our sight.

For those of you who said they can do excellent multi-tasking like browsing through your facebook and doing your math homework at the same time. You are not giving your attention to both things at once instead you actually shifts your attention from browsing the facebook, to homework, to facebook and so on but the question is...which gets more of your attention? How long did you spent your time paying attention to the facebook and how long did you spent on homework? Propotion 3:2? 4:1? 5:1?

Another more serious situation is when you are driving your car ( I don't find it impossible for those without liscence to drive, I've seen most people do it ) you must be attentive of your surrounding. In most cases accidents happens when the driver is too greedy to pay attention to things that needs it. Those daredevils( literally devils as they endager other drivers ) who text message while driving  are most at risk of having a collision because as they text message, their attention are placed on the phone ( if expensive phone masih okay lagi la ) only. At that point, they have no awarness of what's happening on the road until they shift their attention back to it.

Drivers also needs to broaden their attention target. Often times car drivers target their attention to other cars only which is the reason why motorcyclists often involve in accidents ( excluding mat rempits, they ask for it ). A motorcyclist may just be in your field of sight but he may not grab your attention

Hence, it is advisable to do one thing at one time in order that your brain are able to focus and be fully engage with that thing. For those who allocates time for each activity ( facebook morning, homework night, tv afternoon ? ) give yourself a round of applause. No applause for me though. Besides that, be aware of your surrounding while driving, talking to the phone while driving will not help.

To demonstrate my point, try this experiment below. Pay attention !

First things first

Ponder...

First thing... Our brain is the most complex organ yet it is only about the size of two clenched fists. It is responsible for all the actions done by our physical body at the same time it is also responsible in decision-making processes. Without it, we are not able perform any useful work like when a computer without it's CPU, the devices are there but it can't function.

Among all the Creation of Allah, some people are most fascinated by the vastness of our universe while some people are captivated by the creation of life in the womb.  I, on the other hand, am most amazed by the power & complexity of the brain. The idea that we can not recognise faces without it, we can not be empathatic without it, we can not socialise without it, we can not make proper decisions without it, we can not understand things without it, we can not sense the environment without it, we can not perform action necessary for our life ( like breathing and excriting wasteful material ), we can not recognise which is bad and good without it..... is really interesting.

What I would like to conclude here is.. let's admire this astonishing Creation of Allah, The Brain

by understanding how it behaves.