To wonder why people are still so woefully misinformed?

[Lucia39]

We now have access to more information than any previous generation. An entire reference library is available at the click of a mouse, public libraries were still free last time I checked, and general reference books are readily available and comparatively cheap.

Why then is the apparent standard of general knowledge and informed opinion amongst many people in Britain [especially the younger generations] so abysmal?

Oh but you were wrong about the paraphrase thing.

Is that why you went for a bit before?

Lucia, are you at it again?? why would anyone make intelligent comments about a ridiculous generalisation?

on second thoughts.

whatever.

"vent to your grievances against the in-laws, discuss the intricacies of nappy changing and potty training, and moan about how partners are useless in bed."

Ummm - we are all about more than that and if you wanted un-child related stuff why come here?

Are we not allowed to ponder the shape of the universe while deciding how best to teach our children how tadpoles turn into frogs? Maybe the universe is tadpole shaped.......

.........maybe if it turns into a frog you won't be thee to enjoy it .

Lucia where have you been all my life?

Patronising and generalising and stereotyping.

I get on beautifully with my in-laws, they've been dead for a decade.
Both of my erudite and adorable teenagers are out of nappies and potty trained, as are their delightful and intelligent friends.
And my partner...

This website is called mumsnet for a reason. If you wish to discuss the glories of Anglo-Saxon literature or the ecological ravages currently destroying Russia, there are other websites that would suit you better than this one.
Why so unnecessarily rude and dismissive?

ROFL @ lucia

actually I do think Lucia has a point on one level. So many of my friends have appalling general knowledge about anything that does not directly affect them.

For example watchign slumdog millionare one girl had no idea slums looked 'that bad' and in the recent elections i know about 10 people who voted, the excuse from the majority was 'I don't know anything about it' or 'I cant be bothered'.

Even when watching the weakest link with friends they are amazed at the things I know, this is not meant as a big headed, bragging exercise, but they do live in a bubble of their life with no appreciation of the outside world.

But I think non-informed would be a better description, misinformed implies incorrect interpretation rather than non awareness.

Disclaimer: I know not all teens are like this, nor are all older people good at general knowledge.

Yes she has a point.Certainly post you know what this forum is woefully unrepresentative of your average mum thank the lord or the next generation would be in serious doo doo.Give or take a few brilliant exceptions

Penelope to answer your question seriously.

Many older people have poor general knowledge etc this is not something that has changed.

But people usually expand their general knowledge as they get older. This is normal too.

For teenagers not to know everything about everything is not new or unusual.

It is possible that the things they learn about now are simply not the same things as people of older generations learned. For example an older person might be horrified if a young person doesn't know all the capital cities of the world or what-have-you, but the older person might have knowledge lacking in areas such as how the world is to meet the challenge of providing sufficient energy for all the people, and the ins and outs of that.

Not everyone can know everything about everything, especially when they are only young.

Lucia, seeing as you have so much contempt for MN and its posters, why you don't you bugger off and find a site that is more suited to your obviously superior intellect.

And we all know there is such a place

I have to disagree. The young generation are not thick, certainly no more uneducated than we were at that age; just different ways of expressing their teenagedom.
We have had hippies, punks, rockers, and emo in the past, and now its the pretend-to-know-as-little-as-possible.
No matter which way the young choose to demonstrate their teenagedom, they all (eventually) grow up, and there is a surprising amount of knowledge in them.
I just wish they'd pull their trousers up.

I don't understand the OP. How are we measuring the level of general knowledge in Britain in order to understand whether it has declined or not?!

And if there is a genuine point to be made, could this perhaps not be better expressed without the use of idioms and quotes - or is it original thinking and expressing ones own thoughts without resorting to hijacking other people's intelligence that is deteriorating in modern Britain?!

By the way, my DH is quite marvellous in bed

I don't quite know where this extrapolation that a good general knowledge somehow equates to being more intellegent comes from ...

Monkey see, monkey do, monkey repeat comes to mind...

My friends all all very degree clever but I have recently been staggered to realise the following:

Some of them have never, and would never consider wiring a plug.
Some of them do not know how an internal combustion engine works
Some of them are unaware of how our planet, the moon, the other planets in the solar system and galaxies interact with and affect each other at even the most basic level.
Some of them never give a passing though to how things are made, where they have come from, eg look at a tomato in the supaermarket and think "how has this got here? how was it grown? what are the environmental implications" etc

Plus loads of other stuff.

In turn they are staggered and horrified to realise that I have not read certain seminal works of literature, that I do not appreciate classical music, that I can't speak a second language and have a pretty feeble grasp of geography.

Maybe, lucia, you are asking the wrong questions. Maybe you need to find out what interests these young people, and what they are learning about at school, and you will find that they have encyclopaedic knowledge of those subjects.

BTW I do hope that you know how an internal combustion engine works...

I actually think the mass of information available on the internet is a big problem.

At school, if children are learning about, for example, the second world war, they'll be told to have a look online, and pull loads of disparate articles with no real direction.

This is not nearly as pure a source of information as being taught by a good teacher, or reading a book written by a proper historian, or Primo Levi, or even watching a decent war film.

By placing information in front of them we are not teaching them to process it and robbing them of the chance to develop a thirst for knowledge.

Innit.

Lucia i quite agree, i asked my unborn child the other day to fully explain the Theory of Relativity to me and all i got was a kick in the gut

Ah now Spam, I also feel let down by my meagre knowledge of classical music and poor dd will likely be the same as a result. My geography's pretty good though.....

lovely I often worry that if I traveled through time (backwards) everyone would be desperate for me to explain scientific developments, from lightbulbs to telephones and your internal combustion engine, etc.

I'm not quite sure I could offer them the bicycle

In all seriousness, I think there is an interesting debate to be had on this topic, but instead of asking, say "Do others think that the advent of the internet has resulted in a decrease or increase in general knowledge/informed opinion?" Lucia decided to:

1. Made sweeping generalisations
2. Made statements which are not backed up with any evidence.
3. Adopted a superior, patronising tone.

Therefore, some of us have taken the piss out her pretty much all afternoon/evening.

I don't feel let down though. My interests lie in other directions. We can't all know everything about everything. And it would be a very boring place if we did. My DH often tells me fascinating things about how current world conflicts have been shaped by what has gone on in the past, it's brilliant. In return I can show him how to rewire the mower after someone accidentally ran it over the cable this afternoon, despite not having access to wire strippers.

Each to their own, everyone adds their personal contribution to the mix.

Very few people are utterly devoid of any interest in anything. Quite a few people are only interested in things which are perceived of being of little value (shopping, computer games etc). But most people have something that they are really hot on, and i doubt the numbers of all the types of people have changed over the years.

PS acinonyx I hope you can explain how an internal combustion engine works

Nicky2X, Fair enough, LOL

maki do you know I have thought about that too

My conclusions was that you'd need to start by finding some metal, and then generate electricity, I think heating a metal filament would be a good start

Would be very hard to explain all the stuff without the means or materials to condtruct anything - most of the materials wouldn't have been discovered yet.

I came to the conclusion that they would think I was mad, and left it at that!

You'd probably be burnt as a witch LovelyTinOfSpam, with your crazy ideas about making light from metal and glass