This week the most important idea that I think our class talked over was the ideas that were presented in the article "The Elusive Big Idea" by Neil Gabler.
In his article he talked about how we live in a post-idea world and that all the ideas that have ever been useful or can ever be useful have already been thought up. How the only thing that is important in our generation anymore is the obtaining of information. As much information as possible and knowing more information than any other person rather than thinking about that information and using it to try and comprehend the world and people around us.
His article made me think about how our generation is all about a obtaining as much information about our friends and our family and even random facts that we find when we are following someone on Twitter, and less on creating thought-provoking ideas. Of course he talks about how Steve Jobs is obviously someone who had brilliant ideas and was a great inventor, but the things that he invented were material objects not ideas or thoughts that give us insight into his inventions or even into comprehending the world. That is something that we are missing in this generation, ideas. Now you are undoubtedly thinking that Steve Jobs did exactly that, he had ideas and he used those ideas to create something revolutionary, but it's also apparent that his ideas were profit-making inventions, not ideas that challenge you to think intellectually.
Because of the overload of information that we take in everyday, we don't have the time to really process that information and really think about how it connects with the world around us. "We are inundated with so much information that we wouldn't have time to process it even if we wanted to, and most of us don't want to" (Gabler "The Elusive Big Idea).
He also talks about how we have all of these sites and blogs dedicated to the expression of ideas like Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr etc., but they are basically just different ways to exchange information from one person to another as easily as possible, not necessarily ideas. I truly believe that these sites, although they were originally meant for ideas, have essentially become corrupted and they're one of the things that keeps my generation from creating ideas. I've noticed that we have this sort of obsession with Twitter and Facebook because of how it helps us attain more useless information about anything that happens at any given moment.
Of course there are the exceptions of people who do actually spread ideas, thought-provoking ideas, that get the Twitter and Facebook population to really think about their ideas, but I agree with Neal Gabler when he says, "To paraphrase the famous dictum, often attributed to Yogi Berra, that you can't think and hit at the same time, you can't think and tweet at the same time either, not because it is impossible to multitask but because tweeting, which is largely a burst of either brief, unsupported opinions or brief descriptions of your own prosaic activities, is a form of distraction or anti-thinking" (Gabler).
For example, because you're only allowed 140 some characters on a Twitter post, you can't arguably produce an idea that makes people think. Makes them wonder about this idea and the possibilities it holds. Of course it is difficult for someone who has boarded the information train to get off easily, but I plan on not becoming a victim to information. Just by reading this article, I am able to understand what Neal Gabler is trying to get my generation to think about. This article is an idea. It is exactly what we are missing and he is presenting this idea that we have a shortage of ideas by expressing his ideas.
Did you get that?
Let me rephrase. Neal Gabler uses his article "The Elusive Big Idea" to express to us how thought-provoking ideas are almost non-existent in this generation. He is expressing this idea to us and is forcing us to think about that idea, and when we think about that idea it created thought-provoking ideas from the reader.
Now do you get it?
Think about it.
Until next time,
Rachel.
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