definitely NOT the greatest generation

[veronica_rich]

This falls in the category of 'Oh dear Dog, how stupid ARE you?'

There are two things in here that stand out as annoying and offensive to me:

1. When I was a kid and hadn't heard of something, I had to go look it up in a book or ask a teacher or my parents (or grandparents, whatever). We didn't have the Internet; hell, I was lucky I had an Atari 2600 and Pitfall for it. The point is, there was no ten-second point-and-click research. BUT REGARDLESS, THERE ARE THINGS YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO LOOK UP OR ASK ABOUT IF YOU'RE OLDER THAN, OH, NINE. "Was the Titanic real?" Are YOU for real? I knew about the Titanic literally decades before James Cameron told us about it.

I don't think I'm being culturally privileged; you people literally have the easiest research tool in the history of ever. The only way you could find things easier is if Servo the Robot could read your mind and download information directly into your brain as soon as you wonder something. If you have the privilege of access to Twitter, you probably have the privilege of Internet access, too. So don't give me that.

2. No, don't go "wikipedia" something. Use a real source. Take a few minutes to verify it by crosschecking. Wikipedia is good for killing time or bullshit, or finding external links to real sources. Period.

Comments

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

I remember the Titanic Twitter thing too. If you were being really generous, you could attribute that to films not being seen as "real". But yes, I knew about the Titanic when I was a kid. It was just one of those things you learnt about by reading a book or newspaper, watching TV or asking your parents.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

You know, if I liked a movie or a book enough, I generally went to look up the subject matter somewhere, even if it was fictional (like the hypotheses on Atlantis). But Titanic - I mean, James Cameron has been bleating on for 15 years about the real ship and how many hundreds of times he's gone down to visit it, LOL.