9.14.2009

Dying Arts

I found this article, entitled "5o things that are being killed by the internet." It made me nod a lot and say, "Definitely, definitely." Some of the British ones, though, I didn't understand. I'd like to comment on some of them:
  • 27) Knowing telephone numbers off by heart: "After typing the digits into your contacts book, you need never look at them again."
    I used to be really good at memorizing phone numbers. I had a number of them in my head, but now that's gone. But they say that Einstein refused to memorize his phone number, apparently because he didn't want to waste brain space, so maybe this is a good thing for me. Although I'm not sure how one avoids memorizing his own phone number.
  • 29) The mystery of foreign languages: "Sites like Babelfish offer instant, good-enough translations of dozens of languages – but kill their beauty and rhythm." I think this is a good thing. While speakers of major foreign languages will always be in demand, if the US could remedy its shortage of speakers of languages like Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu with technology, that would help us out a lot.
  • 30) Geographical knowledge: "With GPS systems spreading from cars to smartphones, knowing the way from A to B is a less prized skill. Just ask the London taxi drivers who spent years learning The Knowledge but are now undercut by minicabs." I don't use GPS in my car much, but it does seem like people who do fail to learn the local road system as well as people who rely on maps or Mapquest. I think it is useful to know how to get from place to place off the top of your head, or to be able to identify an alternate route on the fly, without having a pleasant voice tell you where to go.
  • 31) Privacy: "We may attack governments for the spread of surveillance culture, but users of social media websites make more information about themselves available than Big Brother could ever hoped to obtain by covert means." I've noticed this, and find it ironic.
  • 16) Hoaxes and conspiracy theories
    "The internet is often dismissed as awash with cranks, but it has proved far more potent at debunking conspiracy theories than perpetuating them. The excellent Snopes.com continues to deliver the final, sober, word on urban legends." I don't agree with this one. I think the Internet does as much to advance conspiracies as debunk them. The 9/11 "truther" movement lives on the internet, as do Obama birth certificate rumors. While Snopes is indeed a useful site, people tend to visit sites that agree with their world view. Conspiracy theorists are more likely to visit "Loose Change" than Popular Mechanics or other debunking sites.

4 comments :

  1. I agree with #27 but I think it has more to do with cell phones then the internet. And apparently I am free to be a genius because I don't ever have my phone number memorized until at least a year after I have it. I still don't know my work number although I sit next to it all day long.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cell phones murdered my knowledge of phone numbers. I can tell you 1) my cell phone number 2) my parents' number (which, after all, I had to memorize in first grade) and 3) the landline number at my apartment (and tellingly, I think of it as "the landline number at my apartment" or "Neal (home)", as it is in my cell phone). Of the items you mentioned, this is probably the second-most dangerous phenomenon, after the privacy one. Say I get in a car wreck and I can't find my cell phone, or it's smashed to bits, and I need to get in contact with somebody who can pick me up--I can't. I should work on this, I just . . . haven't.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, I don't know that the internet, rather than cell phones, has anything to do with not memorizing phone numbers. I didn't catch that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm going to add cook books. No one needs cook books anymore. It's sad. I enjoy my Betty Crocker!

    ReplyDelete