Monday, 4/19

 I wish I could say I'm surprised. But, sadly, I can't.

I'm in the process of reading a book called “Head in the Cloud” by William Poundstone. In it,.the author writes about whether or not it's important to know stuff in the age of Google. If you can look it up on the Internet, why should you have to know it? It's an interesting book; as someone who seems to have a lot of random knowledge stuck in my head I never thought that one might not need to learn every trivial fact that you come across, but apparently that's not the case.

Especially for about a third of the country.

As part of his research for the book Poundstone did surveys about how much Americans know and how they get that knowledge. He (and I, when I read it) was shocked to find out that about a third of the people in the United States have absolutely no interest in learning stuff. They have no interest in furthering their education, and they have no interest in acquiring new knowledge, especially (and this is what blew my mind) if it goes against the pre-conceived notions they already carry around.

So if you ever wondered why there are still people who believe the Earth is flat, and refuse to accept any and all evidence that it's not...well, that's why.

I wish I could say I'm shocked by that fact, but I'm not. I just can't believe that there are people out there who don't wanna learn anything new, especially if it changes their mind or their outlook on a matter. One of the great joys of my life is learning something new; in fact, that's why I'm read books like “Head in the Cloud”. I can't imagine not having a desire to learn anything new. How can you grow as a person that way? Why would you want to be stuck in 1996, or whatever year you finished your formal education? The world is constantly changing; how can you expect to keep up if you're not learning about what's going on?

I just don't get it.

I mean, sure; people who don't wanna learn anything new can look up whatever they need to know on Google. But you have to know WHERE to tell Google to look. You have to know what you're looking for in the first place. And if you're convinced you don't need to know anything new (or you don't want to learn anything new), pretty soon you may not even possess the critical thinking skills that allow you to know where to look, or for what you need to look.

(As an example--one of the many facts I gleamed from reading the book and learning about the self-imposed ignorance of Americans? Nine percent of the people who live in the United States don't know what country New Mexico is in, nor do they know how to look at a map to find it.

Sigh...)

To me, at least, learning isn't something that ends when schooling ends. Learning is something you do all your life. It's one of the ways that you make yourself a better person and a better citizen. Not wanting to learn? That's just...

Well, I don't know what it is. I just wish more that 68 percent of Americans agreed with me.

(jim@wmqt.com)