The Cult Of The Amateur

OK, OK first off, I must admit that I have not finished reading this book. The Cult Of The AmateurWhat happened was this: Mom had a problem with her car. We had to take it in to the shop to get a rear power window fixed...(ended up costing $500.00!!!!) While the car was getting fixed, we walked two blocks to Barnes & Noble, a place that is chock full of books! I happened to be captivated by this one and was able to read a third of it. The author basically asserts that the new information glut and the "democratization" of culture through mass blogs, uninformed opinions, and non-expert coverage of events is causing a cultural cacophony of non-information. The experts are no longer revered, and as a result, only opinions (however uninformed) are all that matter in this new media. (The author refers to the term, Web 2.0 which was coined by Tim O'Reilly...whoever the heck he is! :roll: )The author uses Wikipedia as a prime example of what happens when a source of knowledge is run by a plethora of amateurs rather than a panel of experts. Although there is a lot of useful information, it becomes almost impossible to distinguish opinions and propaganda (often started by special interests) from true facts.The author concludes that in this informational demassified cultural age, we no longer talk about the new media...we ourselves collectively are the new media...and he laments the effect this eventually will have on our culture. I eventually may buy the book in order to finish reading it, or I may stop by the bookstore and finish it...if I can focus on that one book while ignoring all of the other ones! Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

Good point, but it depends which field we are talking about. Take theology, for example. If I am interested in experiencing some "warm fuzzies" I may prefer a small prayer group led by the old lady who has a worn Bible, can quote mine with the best of them, and who flashes a warm and sincere smile and always has a word of comfort for every occasion rather than having the group led by a University Professor of comparative theology who dissects the quotes, questions the sources, and coolly and rationally concludes that "nobody really knows who wrote the book, anyway."My point is that sometimes we don't want experts. Sometimes we would rather try the folk medicine at the local vitamin cottage and hear "expert" advice from the nutritionist who reads all of the anecdotal reports on the effectiveness of the herbs rather than going to a real Doctor who uses his hand held computer to order the prescriptions necessary and who has never read anything about Coenzyme Q-10 for heart troubles.Amateurs have a role to play in society, I think. Sometimes I like reading blogs about the presidential debates and read unverifiable opinions and rumors rather than reading the New York Times. Sometimes I like hearing gossip at work rather than taking the time to ask people how they really feel about an issue. Sometimes folklore just makes me feel better than cold hard facts.I think, (without having read more than a third of the book) that the authors point was that amateur sources and written content now threatens to overshadow legitimate sources and informational content and that it takes an astute and critical reader to be able to accurately discern real information.

We live in an age of "fast food" information. Many students are now taught to google information for their assignments...I myself became quite adept at doing this in my entry level college history exams. (They were too easy! You were given the entire list of possible questions to be asked on the exam, and were expected to know the list! )Perhaps in the higher academic disciplines, where factual information is imperative, there is no room for Wikipedia. For the majority of the rest of society, however, we want fast, cheap information and would expect it to be truthful as well! (Just as, in my "fast food" analogy, people not only want a burger and fries in under a minute but they would really like it to be healthy as well!) It never has been a bad thing so much as simply taking too much time and effort for the average information seeker. (aka first year college student)