My son takes a Sunday paper, and made an offhand disparaging remark about Parade magazine while we were over there. There is a popular culture question site, and he was noting that every question could have been answered with two minutes at a search engine - three minutes tops. What in the world motivates people to write in and ask, having to wait so long for an answer? It might have made sense thirty years ago, or fifty. I suppose there is some thrill in seeing that they picked your question and put your name in print - and it is rather a confirmation that Yes Johnny, you are right in the thick of popular culture, because we picked your question as one lots of others might be interested in.
But mostly, I think people like being part of the conversation, more than they actually want an answer. Chirp, chirp, like birds announcing their whereabouts.
I suppose we're all like that, then, at least in part. Some of us have a horror of being starlings, perhaps.
This conversation may be getting a little bird-brained, but... We too get the Sunday newspaper - sometimes I'm not sure why. I've noticed Parade Magazine shrink over the years in length and page size to where it's few thin pages are hard to even find among the flyers for CVS etc.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that I had developed a habit in written communications to refer to "so-and-so the guy that did such-and-such, whose name I can't remember." You really can't do that with a straight face any more. These days you have not only to look up the answer but read up quickly on the background, or feel very foolish if you missed something obvious.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there are fewer of those mini-arguments at parties over which song came out first on the radio, or who first wrote or covered it, or what the name of the actor is who played a memorable character.
Well, some of us still write letters to the editor of our local rags.
ReplyDeleteHave you looked at a few comments by RS Gold? It looks like SPAM, smells like SPAM, and it would walk like SPAM if it could.
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ReplyDeleteHI there. This post is really for me. I really love engaging in conversations. That is for sensible persons.