I just took the easiest test of my life, and got 11 out of 11 right. The Pew research council set up a poll to see how politically informed (or uninformed) Americans are (link here). The results show that Americans are staggeringly ignorant. The "wrong answers" in the poll were so obviously wrong, it was humorous. There were NO "trick questions". It's sad to say there is really very few citizens who can be considered part of an "informed electorate".Take the quiz for yourself (link here). If you don't get 100%, you're not checking JustJoeP enough, or watching Fox News too much, or maybe not paying any attention to current events whatsoever.
Wow, 66% think TARP was signed by Obama. I would like to see a breakdown of wrong answers. E.g. what percentage of people think the gulf oil spill started at 50,000 feet below the surface?
ReplyDeleteFox News has been VERY EFFECTIVE in convincing a large part of America that it's all Obama's fault.
ReplyDeleteI almost scored a 10 -- got to 11 after deciding that "an information sharing network" was the closest to a means for self-absorbed idiots to share their most banal and inane thoughts.
ReplyDeleteYeah... I am still very reluctant to become a "twit", but the kids now a days appear to thrive on it. The closer one's age is to 20, and farther away it is from 40, somewhat predicts a person's affinity to twitter. I know people who are devoted to using it and benefiting from it, but I am not in agreement or attuned to twitting / twatting / spouting mostly noise.
ReplyDelete"A new cell phone
An information sharing network
A children's cartoon character
A rock band"
...made it pretty obvious.
3 and 4 years ago, I was blog averse, but learned (or was shown by close friends) that it can be a practical means. If kids now a days want to tweet / twit / twat, and they don't do it while driving or endanger me or my family, then all the more power to them.
I like Twitter. I only follow a handful of people, but almost everyone I follow is over 40. And about 6 of your posts this past week would have been perfectly reasonable microblogging twitter posts. What's the difference?
ReplyDeleteJust like other public use / access media, some content can be useful & interesting:
ReplyDelete- some PBS, BBC, NPR
- some websites
- some blogs / twitter posts / FB entries, etc
...while others can be banal, irrelevant, distracting noise
- most AM radio, TMZ, HSN, etc
- many websites
- many blogs
- twitter posts from celebrities like "eating a sandwich".
I think it is to the latter types of banality that Tim and I were expressing our disdain.
I'll catch up with you Ron in one, or two Presidential Elections from now. =)