Why You Suddenly See Things Everywhere

Have you ever learned a new word only to hear it everywhere? This is not a strange coincidence, but a trick of the brain called the frequency illusion that makes you believe things are becoming common just because you noticed them.

Your brain is constantly filtering out massive amounts of sensory information to keep you from getting overwhelmed. Once a concept becomes meaningful to you, your mind stops labeling it as background noise and starts highlighting it in your daily life. It is not that the frequency of these things has actually changed. Instead, your perception has simply shifted to prioritize the information you recently tagged as important.