At Mon, 28 Jun 2004 01:22:05 +0200, Fons Adriaensen wrote: > > "... whenever we invite someone into the news studio, he has to make > his point in 12 seconds. If I know he can't, I will not even > consider him." Why not ? "Beacause it's bad TV, and our market share > will go down. Our viewers just don't want to concentrate on any > issue, they want to be entertained. Anyway that's what our > advertisers tell us: we want the largest segment, which are the > people who don't want to think or do any other mental effort." > > This is just one of the many things I learned over the last years, > and which all point into the same direction: the main social > dividing line in most western societies these days is one that > reflects education levels. It determines lifestyle, consumption > patterns and political preferences, and it is much more influential > than financial status or the old social classes.
Your insinuation that those with a higher level of education aren't susceptible to the 12 second attention span problem (for the record, you and I at least agree on the fact that it *is* a problem) doesn't hold water. At least in the United State of Maryland, most institutions of higher learning that offer an on-campus living solution also offer a cable TV package (MTV included); if there was no demand, there would be no supply. Your point is an anecdotal non-sequitur anyway, although it does reinforce opinions of your elitism (well, at least my own). > More and more, as an 'intellectual' I find myself in a position that > comes down to this: either you budge and dumb down, or you'll be > excluded. This is just one step from what happened during the Nazi > regime, the 'Cultural Revolution', or the Pol Pot government, where > everyone who dared to think was just eleminated. http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/g/Godwin_s_Law.html > Going back to our original point: if a user is too lazy to read a > manual, I can't be bothered with his problem. And if someone > proclaims that aversion to reading documentation is 'normal', I will > disagree, and now you all know why. That's a straw man. The original point was something to the effect of "a volume knob which can only be operated after studying a manual is an indication that the UI designer is a failure," although my rendition is probably more caustic than the original. -Pete www.gazuga.net
