The Death of Reading/Imagination

Flatscreen TVs are in overabundance. It seems business owners look for every empty nook to place them in, until they are visible wherever you turn. It overloads the senses. Especially when you're trying to have a conversation or see musicians at a small venue. It's goddamn insulting and anxiety-inducing.

I too lament the state of things in some regards. I recently perused a Newsweek article on this very topic. In terms of general knowledge on subjects like history and literature, America's youth is sorely lacking. But in other measurable areas of intelligence, they leave their predecessors in the dust (such as in their ability to multi-task). It seems they can process thru differnt sources of information that are arriving at their notice nearly simultaneously, and sift out what they need for imemdiate use much more quickly, generally speaking, than their older counterparts. The drawback? They don't retain this information nearly as long as someone who studies one thing at a time w/ no competing draws on their attention. The article also points out that just because you don't know who the 16th president of the US is doen't necessarily mean you can't think logically or solve a problem. IQ scores, the author contends, continue to rise. Besides, the kids argue, I may not have this info in my head, but I know exactly where on the interwebs I can find it. All that having been said, however, I think it's a damn shame that I hear some schools are allowing kids to spell words phonetically in writing assignments, and are very lax on their enforcement of proper grammar as well. Maybe I am just old fashioned, but you OUGHT to be able to express yourself in a clear, grammatically correct way, writing or speaking. And you SHOULD know at least the rudiments of general subjects like American and world history (if you're an American, that is; insert your homeland here if you're not). You just SEEM dumb if you don't. And as advanced as our competitor nations are in tech fields and such, they stress the fundamentals in even poorer nations' schools to a level that puts ours to shame. In our increasingly global economy, can a semi literate hope to compete with a foreign born & educated person for the same job, if they can put togetehr a noticeably better sales presentation than the other guy, or whatever? Being educated in the "archaic" fundamentals has tangible benefits, too, I'd argue. Lastly, while I think reading a lot certainly helps in this regard (Not to toot my own horn, but I'm generally regarded as a pretty smart guy by people that know me, and I attribute it mainly to all the reading I've always done), it's by no means absolutely necessary for one to be considered intelligent. My wife, and at least one other good friend I can think of, hardly ever read outside of school assignments, and both hold advanced degrees and are VERY intelligent people. But not everyone is that way; if NO ONE is reading anymore, NO ONE arrives at "smart" via reading, the "old fashioned way", if you will. If they aren't naturally "the other kind of smart", as many aren't, and still aren't reading, we can be left, I think, with a lazy and . . . well, dumb generation. And in these troubled times, we can ill afford that. Now MY rant's over.

Frankly, Iggy, I think it's all the Motorhead the kids are listening to nowadays. Or aren't listening to nowadays...hmm...

lol wut?

Must not post picture of pear......

What IggytheBorg lacks in self-awareness he makes up for by speaking in ALL-CAPS. Because WHO CARES about expression when you can just TELL PEOPLE YOU ARE INTELLIGENT. In a single long-winded paragraph.

I kind of rushed that reply a bit because I was at work. I guess the tie in to the lack of imagination Inthe Shadows laments as a possible by product of not reading I should have mentioned is that you can have all the imagination in the world, but if you can't clearly & coherently express your creative ideas, what use are they to you? Or anyone else you're trying to express them to, for that matter? And would italics have worked better for emphasis? We are working in a written medium here, after all. Inflection isn't possible audibly in this format.

Aye, that story of when Socrates discovered he was the most intelligent of Athens had just popped into my mind when I read your rant, was all.

And children are so fat nowadays. Isn't there some way we could make money off that?

Yes we can!

But you aren't willing to share how?

Wait. . . does this mean the children are fat AND uneducated?