The title alone was enough to generate my LOL, not quite the LMAO I sometimes enjoy, but CTMQ albeit sadly.
Still, I was tempted to DM the addy to a few friends while enjoying the hot little rush, the immediate and enthusiastic click, then the heady scan of text to remind me that we know what we’re doing as we skim, excerpt, and spit back out the latest and greatest of our social media feeds. IMHO.
“Faking Cultural Literacy” hands us our heads on a platter. But DWBH. You’re not alone in this.
WTF, we know we’re brutally busy, pop culture currency is essential to us all, and IDGARA what anyone thinks about my conclusion that we’ve become a superficial society of followers, scanners, gossipers… but hey, MEGO just like yours when expected to process anything with actual facts, in-depth exposition, references you should verify.
You know, thought stuff.
So what if we take our most current soundbites – dare I say like the “easy quick quote” – and pass that off for knowledge, for reasoning, or for substance?
MBN if you have time for anything more.
Am I any better?
Hell yes. Except for when I’m not. I’ve got scheduling issues IRL, too. I’m as forced to digest information ASAP as the next guy, but NIMY would I have imagined the extent to which we distill, synthesize, and play telephone with words these days. But do the same, in general?
NIMJD. NFW. NGH.
Natch, I recognize that we’re consumers of what we scan and skim, so that we seem like we’re in the know, which is IOTTCO.
Don’t believe me? Feast your easily distracted eyes on this and AIH I fully agree, as writing in The New York Times, Karl Taro Greenfeld says:
… It’s never been so easy to pretend to know so much without actually knowing anything. We pick topical, relevant bits from Facebook, Twitter or emailed news alerts, and then regurgitate them.
If you pop by to pursue further (a girl can hope), you will note, too, that Mr. Greenfeld describes “consuming” information rather than reading or learning, and I dare say he is quite right to do so.
SWDYT? Haven’t we all accustomed ourselves to consuming “content” – we don’t even refer to it as words and images – rather than processing provocative prose? Don’t we go for easy and quick over challenging, mind-bending, or open-ended?
AFAICT, there’s no real need to read since this says it all:
… What we all feel now is the constant pressure to know enough, at all times, lest we be revealed as culturally illiterate… being able to engage in the chatter about it…
I shall stop here, with a reverent nod to the writer’s reference to our contemporary model of “knownothingness.” And lest I waste your time, I invite you to click over and actually view the article, which, IMAO, would have been improved if he’d thrown in a FLA or two. Then again, The NYT is a relatively AFZ. WTH.
Anyway, go now. Click here. Don’t think. Just glean. (CTMQ again.) But if you take your time, you may enjoy the pithy style and the crux of the writer’s conclusions, TMALSS, even if they are too close for comfort.
Listen. Even scanning social media feeds and living on our devices offers some sort of awareness, right? We pick up all kinds of genius stuff when we text and tweet and share. It’s way better than BSBD&NE. So. About that article. Read it. Really.
WIIFY?
WIIWII.
However sad, the phenomenon is H2S. If only we could stop. Finish a thought. Better yet, generate an original one, if we remember how. That’s right. Think for ourselves.
JM2C.
LOL: Laughing Out Loud
LMAO: Laughing My Ass Off
CTMQ: Chuckling To Myself Quietly
IMO: In My Humble Opinion
IDGARA: I Don’t Give A Rat’s Ass
MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over
DWBH: Don’t Worry Be Happy
IRL: In Real Life
NIMY: Never In A Million Years
MBN: Must Be Nice
NIMJD: Not In My Job Description
NFW: No Fucking Way
NGH: Not Gonna Happen
IOTTCO: Intuitively Obvious To The Casual Observer
AFZ: Acronym-Free Zone
WTH: What The Heck
AIH: As It Happens
SWDYT: So What Do You Think
AFAICT: As Far As I Can Tell
IMAO: In My Arrogant Opinion
FLA: Four-Letter Acronym
CTM: Chuckling To Myself
TMALSS: To Make A Long Story Short
BSBD&NE: Book Smart, Brain Dead, & No Experience
WIIFY: What’s In It For You
WIIWII: Well It Is What It Is
H2S: Here To Stay
JM2C: Just My 2 Cents.
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Style is more important than substance. Seeming to be in the know is more important than actually being in the know. We are more worried about what our peer group thinks of us than what we think ourselves. I tweet links to articles, both my own and others, and sometimes get responses indicating the commentator has read my tweet but not the linked article: the same amusing phenomenon pointed out in the NY Times about NPR’s April Fools’ Day joke.
“Six in 10 Americans acknowledge that they do nothing more than read news headlines.” My attention span is so short, I can’t concentrate beyond 140 characters. “TL;DR” Ha, ha.
So, in thinking of all those unknowledgeable pontificators who pretend to be knowledgeable, don’t we all wish we could unmask them like this?
Scene from the 1977 film Annie Hall: Woody Allen meets Marshall McLuhan
I do love your style, Mr. Belle… But excuse me. I must hop over to that clip now and refresh my brain, not to mention check my cheat sheet for TL;DR … Too Long; Didn’t Read, indeed. It’s tough encapsulating All The World’s Knowledge in 140 characters, isn’t it. (Now if only it were 140 literary characters, we just might manage it.) But hey, TLITBC.
That’s Life In The Big City.
This post had me LOL. BTW, I really hate what is happening with the younger, tech generation with language and the fact they don’t read! So sad and frustrating…are there initials for that?? Any way, I did enjoy the post!
If there aren’t Pam, there should be! Sad and frustrating indeed, and I imagine more so from your point of view as a teacher.
OMG, SFT…thanks for the cheat sheet.
Does everyone skim? IMHO, yes! IRL , skimming is H2S. AFAICT, Playboy isn’t bought for the articles either, IMAO
Heading to read now. TSM!
Good point about Playboy! (TFFW)
That was acronym hell. I felt like I was reading a military brief. Thank you for the index.
It seems people are more aware of different things but they have little or no knowledge. What I love is people that know all including the spouse of my cousin who felt the need to tell me and my friend a (cardiologist) how to do our jobs. We were shocked at first and then laughed. No doubt she obtained her education from Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, Oprah, Wikipedia, some magazine at the checkout line or when she took her junior college degree in accounting. What possesses people to do this? It seems these incidents are becoming more frequent.