Why Do People Doodle?
Why do people doodle? Doodling is something that young children, school age pupils, college students and even bored executives do. In short, it’s something that anyone can and inevitably does when they’ve got the urge to put pen to paper and can’t think what they are going to write.
A doodle is not usually something that’s planned. Its very spontaneity makes it fun to do. It doesn’t have to be well thought out, and there aren’t any rules for form or grammar. It’s simply the result of what you happen to be thinking of at the time. In a way, the subject of your doodle tells you that it is something that is prominent in your subconscious mind. Even if you consider that it is something that you’re likely to do when you are waiting for something more exciting to happen, doodling is an activity that often can reflect more about you than a well executed artwork. It’s a candid yet telling display of your thoughts.
Perhaps this is one subconscious reason why people do this. Perhaps a person doodles because something is bothering him. Perhaps there is something he wants very much and it manifests onto the paper. The question “Why do people doodle?” has gotten psychologists thinking and they say that doodling is rated somewhere between conscious thinking as likened to when solving a problem, and daydreaming wherein your brain is literally let loose, and your subconscious mind is tapped into freely. Whatever psychological reason there is for doodling it cannot take away the fact that doodling is spontaneous. If you are in class, it certainly beats falling asleep, when you should not.
Doodling can save you from being embarrassed or punished, in the case of falling asleep in the middle of a class. However, what you doodle can get you in trouble too. A teacher or a boss will not take too kindly if you happen to make them the object of your doodles, especially if you portray them in a negative light. Scrawling ‘____ is stinky boring’ might relieve your boredom but will put you in hot water if you get caught. So does drawing horns and a tail on a caricature of your boss. Doodling on your computer is also possible but you should think before you even consider uploading it. No matter how you try to keep such things secret, there’s always a way for the doodle to reach the attention of your ‘nemeses’. But in the case of simply relieving boredom and giving yourself a creative outlet to prevent daydreaming, doodling is just fine, and something that everyone engages in from time to time.
