Did you know that writing is also studying?

Many people associate studying with cracking open a book or a laptop and taking notes while memorizing key points spoken in a previously recorded academic lecture. But what if I told you that although this is a popular form of studying, it is not the only form of study. Writing notes, blog posts, and even writing a post on social media is a form of studying.

Just think about it.

I noticed this when I spent the last decade writing down all of the ideas and thoughts that came across my spirit during my walk with Christ. The more I wrote, the more confident I was in what I had to say and how I needed to say it. I grew more confident in the subject matter that I was writing about, and whatever topic I was focused on at the time, I became more adept at understanding that said topic. So while I was just writing down thoughts that came to my mind throughout the day and just talking to God in my head during my daily habits and whatnot, I realized that meditating—literally just meditating on the Word of God and then writing down what came to me—was indeed a form of studying Him and His Works seen in His creation around me.

Even when I would post on social media or converse with someone about topics that weren’t spiritual or religious, I was learning how to be patient and how to understand someone’s verbiage, personal definitions, and life experiences. All of this I learned while writing and replying to people on social media.

So whether you’re on Facebook or Twitter, you’re studying all forms of media that come across your feed. You are studying and analyzing large blocks of text that are a reflection of other people’s thoughts, who would have also had to properly study themselves and write what they wanted to say. This all happens because no matter what type of content passes across social media, all of it is still a form of knowledge that our brains assess upon observation (even though there are some who seem to make a practice of misinterpreting others’ posts).

Writing is a form of studying to understand one another socially on social media and on a side note; it makes me think about what stuff we have written and learned about while reading and responding to certain posts online…

This is just something to think about when you start your next writing project. Maybe when I was back in school and we had to write sentences over and over again in English class as a morning routine; maybe it wasn’t such a complete waste of time.

Photo by Daniel Monteiro on Unsplash