It is true that the photograph provides a context for the sentence you have been given and that the sentence provides a context of sorts for the photograph, and you may even believe for a day or so that you have learned something. but if the event is entirely self-contained, devoid of any relationship to your past knowledge or future plans, if that is the beginning and end of your encounter with the [information], then the appearance of context provided by the conjunction of sentence and image is illusory, and so is the impression of meaning attached to it. You will, in fact, have "learned" nothing...and the illyx will fade from your mental landscape as though it had never been. At best you are left with an amusing bit of trivia, good for trading in cocktail party chatter or solving a crossword puzzle, but nothing more.
~Neil Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death
What's your favorite piece of "cocktail party chatter"? In other words, what is something you know that really has no relevance to your life or any one else's you know?
REALLY dumb, but it gets everyone talking is "when did you get your first cell phone." Especially good with a twentysomething crowd. Mindless but fun. :)
ReplyDeleteNice! Something easy and has the potential for great funny if you are in an older than 25 crowd.
ReplyDelete