I recently listened to the Huberman lab podcast episode #7, where Andrew described how learning occurs for young and old people.
When you are older than 25, for learning to occur, one has to intentionally focus on the specific learning subject. In other words, I really need to pay attention and set my intention, so that I absorb the material. An implication of these requirements is that just passively listening to something, without focus or intention, will not induce learning. For example, listening to some lectures but not really being fully attentive.
For folks younger than 25, the conditions for learning are quite the opposite. It is not mandatory to focus intensively on a specific material for the absorption to happen. What that means is that when you passively are exposed to different topics, these will be captured in your brain. My interpretation is that all the info exposed to children that comes from the TV or conversations from adults will get engraved in a child's brain without too much effort. Regardless of the information being positive or negative.
Now let me tell you why this topic caught my attention. Growing up I would watch TV shows that would describe fictitious romantic relationships. At a young age, those videos were my only learning material regarding relationships. With an intent to interpret how the real world works, I absorbed those relationship dynamics and agree with myself that, that is the way the world works and is. In those times I did not set an intention to learn about how romantic connections worked, it just passively sipped into my brain.
After being exposed to what a healthy relationship is, I unlearned the passive information, and replaced it with a healthier point of view. I did not intentionally try to take something that was for entertainment (read soap operas) and put it into my brain as a modus operandi. Based on Huberman's explanations about our learning processes I can understand better where some ingrained beliefs come from. Actually, I quite did not understand where many things I happen to believe come from. Now I understand they were unconscious learning from my ecosystem while growing up.
My takeaway is that whatever I exposed my younger child-self to, mattered! It mattered in the sense of what he was learning and how it was going to impact his future. A note for my future self is to be really aware of what I expose my children to, because they are indeed sponges!