Knowledge Is Good

I am angry afresh over the predilection that so many people seem to have for disseminating quotes. It is a terrible plague on the internet, and I wish I could do something to put a stop to it. At least as bad (and seemingly new as a presence online) is the proliferation of allegedly fun facts. Just as with quotes, certain friends seem awfully fond of posting "fun facts", apparently convinced that they are what they purport to be.

One friend incessantly posts fun film facts, all of which are either very old news to me or which are not fun in the least bit. I concede that fun is a subjective quality, but then isn't that a very compelling reason to call them something else? I would not like them any better if they were neutrally described as just facts, but I would be forced to admit that they are what they claim to be, and how can you get mad at anything that is what it says it is?

Lest I look like someone who hates knowledge, let me be clear that I am a naturally curious person who is always reading, always learning, and always intrigued by some new piece of information. I certainly don't mean to discourage people from promoting any form of learning, or to inhibit anyone from doing some learning of their own. I would like the facts to be taken in a truly helpful form, which is to say that they aren't much good sitting there on their own.

Let's say we're talking about an especially hoary "fun fact" I read recently, which was about how the famous scene from "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" where Indy shoots a swordsman rather than engaging in a swordfight was suggestd by Harrison Ford because everyone was sick and wanted to go home. It's an old story, and reading it again within the confines of a tweet was less than interesting. If I read an entire book on the making of the film, it would be considerably more enlightening, thanks to the magic of context. I guess that's the nature of my grievance.