I fully agree, Jon, except for the part about people's attention spans getting -- what was it? Attention sp -- what's that? Hey, how about those Jazz?.... jb
Hello all,
This is my first posting to this group; however, I have been sitting quietly in the background reading the daily digests that come to my in-box. When I read todays posts about popular society, I had to respond.
I am in complete agreement with you all concerning popular society. My wife and I are in our late 20's (28, 29) and are expecting our first child. When I heard that the planetarium was moving to Gateway, I was excited at first, and then I gradually became saddened that my child won't be seeing the star shows in the old building. I vividly remember the first time my parents took me to a star show at the Hansen Planetarium in the late seventies. I remember walking out in awe, and begging my parents to take me to the library so I could get some books on astronomy. I devoured anything and everything that had to do with astronomy. Sadly, my collegiate studies took me along another path, but my experiences at the planetarium awakened my mind to the fact that we occupy such a small corner of an infinitely vast universe.
My theory is that popular culture demands that everything must be new. I think this is due to the fact that people's attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter. People don't appreciate anything that's more than a few years old anymore. When it's "out-dated", it no longer holds any interest and the individual moves on to the next fad. I truly feel that we are losing something as a species, the curiosity that drives us to expand our minds and challenge our beliefs. For example, I just started a new job, and I have been telling people that I just built my first telescope, and am working on my second. The usual response I get is "cool", or "I wish I had the energy and time to do that." No really shows any curiosity in seeing them, and balk away when I invite them to come and peer at what's over their heads. Then I realize, the subject matter is truly "over their heads" because they don't really grasp the universe above them because they don't care to. If its not on NBC on thursday nights from 7-10, they just don't care.
Sorry for the long message, that was my $0.02 worth. Jon
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Joe Bauman science & military reporter Deseret News bau@desnews.com (801) 237-2169