Brooke (Justus) Fradd

Travel 🧳 Concerts 🤠 Reading📚 Family 💜🐾

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

Anyone else feel guilty about taking a library book on vacation?

[Jon Tweets Sports @jontweetssports]

It’s 5pm on the 4th of July. The burgers & dogs are ready.

“Uncle Rick, would you bless the food?”

Uncle Rick, 24 Coors Light deep:

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

@ColbyAcuff We’ve got it on repeat in the house (the movie) I’ve got the digital copy and @fraddtastic33 bought the vinyl. We love it!!! I’ve not got a favorite yet, because all of the songs are great!

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

That feeling when you get back from Europe and the cap completely twists off the plastic bottle…right before you pour the drink over a big glass of ice.

[Josh RR Jokien @joshcarlosjosh]

JESUS: so do you still celebrate the day I was crucified?

ME: oh yeah, it's a major holiday

JESUS: and what is it called? Sad Friday?

ME: ...

JESUS: tragic Friday?

ME: ...

JESUS: WHAT IS IT CALLED

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Scientists put kids through 100 hours of reading, then scanned their brains. New wiring had physically grown inside the language regions. Communication between brain areas sped up by a factor of 10. Kids who didn't read showed zero change.

That was a 2009 Carnegie Mellon study. It gets wilder.

In 2013, Emory University scanned 19 students every morning for 19 straight days while they read one novel chapter each night. Mornings after reading, the brain areas responsible for understanding other people's emotions lit up with new connections. So did the region that processes physical sensation. Their brains were simulating what the characters felt, as if it were happening to them. Those changes stuck around for 5 days after they finished the book.

Now flip to scrolling. A massive review published in Psychological Bulletin last September pulled together 71 studies covering 98,299 people. Heavy short-form video use (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) showed a clear pattern: worse attention, weaker self-control, and more anxiety. Consistent across teenagers and adults, across every platform tested. Oxford didn't name "brain rot" its 2024 Word of the Year for nothing.

A 2024 brain wave study found that people hooked on short-form video had weaker activity in the front of the brain, the part that controls focus and impulse control. Separate brain scans showed the same thing: heavy scrollers had less activation in the exact regions that deep reading strengthens.

UCLA neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf has been studying this for decades. Humans were never born to read. There's no gene for it. Reading is something we invented, and it hijacked neurons that were originally meant for recognizing faces. Over time, it built entirely new brain circuits connecting language, vision, and emotion. But those circuits only survive if you use them. Stop reading, and they fade. Wolf's conclusion is simple: screens built for speed produce a speed-wired brain. Books built for depth produce a depth-wired brain.

One honest caveat: most of these studies are snapshots, not long-term tracking. People who already struggle to focus might just prefer short videos. But the same pattern showing up across nearly 100,000 people is hard to shrug off.

The tweet repeats the line seven times. The research backs it up with brain scans, EEG data, and white-matter imaging across tens of thousands of people.

[Brant Hansen @branthansen]

Okay... I'm going to sound like real-life @ChrchCurmudgeon here, but here goes...

If you are a church musician, and you honestly want to "lead people in worship" through music, you may want to do the following:

1) Pick a singable key for the median person who doesn't sing all the time. Don't pick a key to highlight your voice.

2) Lower the volume so people can hear the voices of those around them, and themselves.

3) Let people sing the melodies that are familiar to them. While you may want to jazz up or do the latest CCM twist of "Hark the Herald" or "Silent Night"--people can't follow you. They just want to sing the song.

Picking keys to highlight your voice; playing at concert volume; doing creative rearrangements to make the familiar suddenly unfamiliar... all discourage us from singing.

There's NOTHING wrong with highlighting your voice, or playing at concert volume, or doing creative rearrangements of songs... if you are a performer.

Book a gig somewhere! Play out! Be great! Build a following! But please, when we all get together and sing, don't put up barriers to stop us.

[ESPN @espn]

The Chiefs have been eliminated from playoff contention for the first time since 2014.

[Paul Snively @JustDeezGuy]

“Kyrie eleison” really are the only words available.

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

Going to bed with time still on the clock. But I’ve made progress in 3 books, finished 4, and are about half way through 2 new audiobooks. So we’re counting this as a win!

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

Who’s up for a Labor Day weekend readathon?! I’m thinking 24 hours over 3 days.

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

# 4 done

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

@histdireito @AISafetyMemes I just finished "So Long, Thanks for All the Fish" and immediately thought of Marvin!!!!!

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

I’m not saying I believe in manifestation.

All I’m saying is that on the trail today I said if I could have one food in the world it would be hot, salty, French fries. Our dinner provided by the hotel in Switzerland came with a side of hot, salty, French fries.

[WeRateDogs @dog_rates]

This is Rocco. He's being praised a hero by his neighbors after his barking alerted them to an apartment fire that damaged 24 apartments last week. “They said they never hear him bark but he was barking out of control that something was wrong.” 14/10 good boy Rocco

[Church Curmudgeon @ChrchCurmudgeon]

My Sunday afternoon nap lasted longer than the Tik Tok ban.

[Brooke (Justus) Fradd @CampFraddFun]

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

[Tim Burchett @timburchett]

How is it possible @POTUS gave $1 Billion to Angola in Africa over $1 Billion to illegals yet folks in Hawaii, North Carolina and Tennessee can’t get a $750 dollar check?