Seth Godin
The bestselling novel of
1961 was Allen Drury's Advise and Consent. Millions of people
read this 690-page political novel. In 2016, the big sellers were coloring
books.
Fifteen years ago, cable
channels like TLC (the "L" stood for Learning), Bravo and the
History Channel (the "History" stood for History) promised to add
texture and information to the blighted TV landscape. Now these
networks run shows about marrying people based on how well they kiss.
And of course, newspapers won
Pulitzer prizes for telling us things we didn't want to hear. We've responded
by not buying newspapers any more.
The decline of thoughtful
media has been discussed for a century. This is not new. What is new: A
fundamental shift not just in the profit-seeking gatekeepers, but in the
culture as a whole.
"Everything should be
made as simple as possible, but no simpler."*
[*Ironically, this isn't what
Einstein actually said. It was this, "It can scarcely be denied that the
supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple
and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation
of a single datum of experience." Alas, I've been seduced into believing
that the shorter one now works better.]
Is it possible we've made
things simpler than they ought to be, and established non-curiosity as the
new standard?
We are certainly guilty of
being active participants in a media landscape that breaks Einstein's
simplicity law every day. And having gotten away with it so far, we're now
considering removing the law from our memory.
The economics seem to be that
the only way to make a living is to reach a lot of people and the only way to
reach a lot of people is to race to the bottom, seek out quick clicks, make it
easy to swallow, reinforce existing beliefs, keep it short, make it sort of
fun, or prurient, or urgent, and most of all, dumb it down.
And that's the true danger of
anti-intellectualism. While it's foolish to choose to be stupid, it's cultural
suicide to decide that insights, theories and truth don't actually matter. If
we don't care to learn more, we won't spend time or resources on knowledge.
We can survive if we eat candy
for an entire day, but if we put the greenmarkets out of business along the
way, all that's left is candy.
Give your kid a tablet, a
game, and some chicken fingers for dinner. It's easier than talking to him.
Read the short articles, the
ones with pictures, it's simpler than digging deep.
Clickbait works for a reason.
Because people click on it.
The thing about clickbait,
though, is that it exists to catch prey, not to inform them. It's bait, after
all.
The good news: We don't need
many people to demand more from the media before the media responds. The
Beverly Hillbillies were a popular show, but that didn't stop Star Trek from
having a shot at improving the culture.
The media has always bounced
between pandering to make a buck and upping the intellectual ante of what they
present. Now that this balance has been ceded to an algorithm, we're on the
edge of a breakneck race to the bottom, with no brakes and no break in sight.
Vote with your clicks, with
your sponsorship, with your bookstore dollars. Vote with your conversations,
with your letters to the editor, by changing the channel...
Even if only a few people use
precise words, employ thoughtful reasoning and ask difficult questions, it
still forces those around them to catch up. It's easy to imagine a slippery
slope down, but there's also the cultural ratchet, a positive function in which
people race to learn more and understand more so they can keep up with those
around them.
Turn the ratchet. We can lead
our way back to curiosity, inquiry and discovery if we (just a few for now)
measure the right things and refuse the easy option in favor of insisting on
better.
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