What is a Shower Thought? The meaning seems as though it’s in the name: thoughts you have while showering. But why are they different from other thoughts? They shouldn’t be, but many folks recognize that the kind of thoughts you have while showering are often different than when you’re working on the computer or talking to a friend or trying to complete other types of tasks. There is actually a scientific reason for this, according to Wired, and it’s because our brains have something called a “default mode network.” Various activities can trigger these types of thoughts not just the shower:
The common thread in these activities is they are physically or mentally active, but only mildly so. They also need to be familiar or comfortable enough that you stay engaged but not bored, and last long enough to have an uninterrupted stream of thought.
Your ideas in these scenarios become a bit untethered from external things around you and are more free-associating. That’s why you see life differently, leading to AHA moments. How useful those moments are, however, varies quite a bit.
But they’re at least often entertaining, which is why there is a whole subreddit dedicated to Shower Thoughts, where people can share their grand, new ideas that have nowhere else to go. Most of the best ones this week won’t change the course of humanity, but they will make you see things a little differently, or at least make you laugh. Just let them flow over you, like water.
1.
Women’s longer average lifespan is partially cancelled out by longer wait times at public restrooms.—u/Laughing_Fish
2.
Young people now hate Boomers for destroying the housing market. Young people in the future will hate Millenials for destroying their privacy. —u/BrandonTheStoner
3.
You go to math class in school so that you can unlock different buttons on your calculator—u/jawa24
4.
If Star Trek-like transporter technology were invented, the airline industry would spend billions to discredit it as unsafe and scary.—u/GrumpyPidgeon
5.
Normally, you empty your drink from the top, but when you use a straw you empty it from the bottom.—u/FrancoIsFit
6.
Jet lag must be a real son of a bitch in the Star Wars universe.—u/original_nerf_herder
7.
25-cent candy machines are becoming a better value every year due to inflation. They haven’t changed the prices in decades and usually dispense the same amount of candy.—u/Bug0
8.
Watching paint dry on a microscopic scale would ironically be very interesting.—u/ShotgunJib
9.
If you woke up and had the power to walk through walls it would take you a long time to realise—u/Zinho_
10.
Judging by how much quality gets buried and forgotten, there are probably hundreds of unpublished novels and unmade movies out there that are even better than the classics we know.—u/shallowblue