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Mar. 24th, 2012 08:13 pmI was thinking about cultural literacy this morning. You may or may not remember a book that came out in the late eighties, called "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know". It brought about a lot of discussion mostly because it contained a list of things that were considered essential.
If you never heard of the book, I'll refer you to Star Trek TNG episode "Darmok", the one where Picard was on a planet with an alien named Dathon whose language was metaphor-based. When they began to figure this out, Deanna commented along the lines of "It's like us saying 'Juliet on a balcony'", meaning that if you never heard of Shakespeare you would have no clue what that meant. English idiom is filled with this sort of thing--Trojan Horse and Achilles' Heel quickly come to mind.
I'm wondering, though, if we are beginning to split into two groups. If you are reading this on your computer, for instance, you likely immediately understand "All your bases are belong to us" or "Badger, Badger, Badger... Snaaaaake....". A person who doesn't spend much time on the computer would have NO idea what I was talking about.
Television is filling in the gap a bit, we saw a commercial a while back with the Honey Badger, and you have shows like Tosh.0 that show you tube clips. But still, there's a whole layer of culture that is completely inaccessible to someone who doesn't use computers or doesn't use them much.
The internet gives another advantage to its users in terms of ease of research. I was talking to my aunt the other day and I said to her "The biggest change the Internet made in my life is I no longer have idle questions". She laughed, which I'd intended, but that statement was one of the truest things I've ever said.
A book refers in passing to Emperor Norton? I think I know who that is, but... Internet! I wonder how they make Puffed Rice? Internet! How many calories in one serving of grasshoppers? Internet! Well, I never really looked that up before, it was a joke, but... Crickets Are 122 Calories, Small Grasshoppers Are 153 Calories & A Serving Of Red Ant Eggs Is 83 Cal
And on that note...
If you never heard of the book, I'll refer you to Star Trek TNG episode "Darmok", the one where Picard was on a planet with an alien named Dathon whose language was metaphor-based. When they began to figure this out, Deanna commented along the lines of "It's like us saying 'Juliet on a balcony'", meaning that if you never heard of Shakespeare you would have no clue what that meant. English idiom is filled with this sort of thing--Trojan Horse and Achilles' Heel quickly come to mind.
I'm wondering, though, if we are beginning to split into two groups. If you are reading this on your computer, for instance, you likely immediately understand "All your bases are belong to us" or "Badger, Badger, Badger... Snaaaaake....". A person who doesn't spend much time on the computer would have NO idea what I was talking about.
Television is filling in the gap a bit, we saw a commercial a while back with the Honey Badger, and you have shows like Tosh.0 that show you tube clips. But still, there's a whole layer of culture that is completely inaccessible to someone who doesn't use computers or doesn't use them much.
The internet gives another advantage to its users in terms of ease of research. I was talking to my aunt the other day and I said to her "The biggest change the Internet made in my life is I no longer have idle questions". She laughed, which I'd intended, but that statement was one of the truest things I've ever said.
A book refers in passing to Emperor Norton? I think I know who that is, but... Internet! I wonder how they make Puffed Rice? Internet! How many calories in one serving of grasshoppers? Internet! Well, I never really looked that up before, it was a joke, but... Crickets Are 122 Calories, Small Grasshoppers Are 153 Calories & A Serving Of Red Ant Eggs Is 83 Cal
And on that note...
