Is our world turning "alien?" Or maybe it always has been?
The generation gap. The religious gaps. The cultural gaps. Romance is about bridging the gap between one individual and another. Alien Romance is about bridging the gap between groups, worlds of people living in different perceptivities of reality.
I've been a public speaker for a good while now and have noticed something I wonder if others have noticed. I'd really like some input on this issue.
It seems that general audiences, and even audiences full of fiction readers, have lost the distinction between a question and an opinion.
I usually start an audience discussion by asking the audience what they came to learn, and something about who they are and what they do. Then I edit the subject I'm supposed to discuss to slant it to the audience, When I finally get them jumping out of their seats with enthusiasm, I request questions from the audience. That's where the trouble starts. People offer long, rambling opinions instead of questions.
Has any other public speaker noticed this? Any idea why it's happening? Is it a generation related issue, or do you see it in older people too?
This seems important to me because I'm beginning to wonder if the distinction between fact and opinion has been lost as well, and if that loss is generation related. Do younger people take other people's opinions as facts?
I've noticed that newspapers and TV news have wildly mixed editorial commentary with news. The touchstone of good journalism used to be the strict separation of fact and opinion. Fact is news. Opinion is editorial. Both have their place, and are essential in order to comprehend the meaning of an item -- but they aren't the same thing.
I believe TV (non-fic and fiction) follows public trends. I don't think commercial endeavors create trends. They make a profit by following trends. But they do magnify trends -- with the internet, the magnification happens faster.
Are we looking at a trend here, and if so is there anything we can do about it? Is there anything we should do about it? The world should change with the generations. Resistance is futile. So it's not just a question of what to do -- but toward what goal should those actions be targeted?
I have been dismissing this issue of blurring question, opinion and fact as a mere curiosity. But I recently watched a 1957 movie on AMC, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESSS.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051036/
A character casually mentioned the population of the United States as 60 million. I thought immediately that 300 million was surpassed last year.
I saw in a different light, the vast problem of TV vs. Internet news, political elections, Electoral College issues, and how TV and Radio talk show hosts are influencing the electorate with opinion packaged as news. Is it possible that one generation can tell the difference between opinion and news while another can't?
Pre-radio, newspapers were the most influencial source for voters information. Owning a newspaper, endorsing a candidate, gave someone power. Now it's talk-radio, TV and above all YouTube. I don't know that it makes a difference. Media has always been important in shaping public opinion -- but media used to distinguish between fact and opinion.
When there were 60 million in America, there were a few things that "everybody" knew. Now there are 300 million, and as far as I can find, there isn't anything left that "everybody" knows. We are a fragmented society.
It occurred to me that the basic problem may not be whether people can tell the difference between question, opinion, and fact. That could be just a symptom, not the problem.
Perhaps the real problem is that our Constitution, governmental structure, school system, healthcare delivery system, fiction delivery system, news delivery system, cultural assumptions, have all reached a limit of what business calls "scalability" -- at a certain size, the underlying business model breaks down and the system becomes dysfunctional and non-profitable.
Is that why our schools fail to convey cognitive methodology to our children? Has the model upon which America is based reached a limit of scalability and begun to break down -- to cost more to operate than it can possibly produce?
Is the problem really that what works for 60 million won't work for 300 million?
What is really going on when audience members stand up to answer a call for questions and launch into a diatribe of personal opinion? And what can a speaker do about that without starting a riot?
Figure that out, and you'll have the subject for a dynamite best seller. All the technique in the world won't sell a novel that isn't ABOUT something having to do with a recognizable trend. Study the world. Hypothesize. Extrapolate.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
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I suggest handing out a short question-and-answer form to each person when they walk in. Then, have someone collect them and bring them to you. Speed-read and answer the real questions.
ReplyDeleteI don't see this as an age thing. I've seen all groups do this. Before a person asks a question, she must first accept she doesn't know the answer. This can be scary for a lot of people. We like to think we know everything already, for pride and personal sense of security reasons. It's human nature and some cultures cater to it more than others, I think.
A great philosopher, Socrates, I think, said something like, "To obtain wisdom, I must first accept that I know nothing."
Has any other public speaker noticed this?
ReplyDeleteYes, loads of times.
Any idea why it's happening?
I think it boils down to a person’s need for validation, or other psychological needs (security, belonging, etc.. Maslow said it all, basically). Some folks never received enough as a child, so they compensate in other ways. They’re desperate for attention, not necessarily just for attention’s sake, but because some kind of anxiety is driving them.
Is it a generation related issue, or do you see it in older people too?
I think you’ll encounter this in anyone who has some deficiencies in their social development.
Do younger people take other people's opinions as facts?
Not necessarily. I’d argue that intelligence is a factor here, as well as one’s emotional IQ. But I think that for many people the ability to distinguish between opinion and fact improves with age.
And what can a speaker do about that without starting a riot?
I would like to suggest that a speaker can validate the audience member who rambles, followed by gentle redirection and limit setting (i.e., “I can tell you feel very strongly about the issue. Unfortunately, we have a limited amount of time. Do you have a specific question for me before I move on to the next person?”). Or something to that effect.
A speaker also has to be prepared to just cut someone off. Diplomatically, of course. Come up with statements to use ahead of time and practice via role-playing with friends. Be prepared to put a lot of authority into your voice, and be prepared to end the event entirely if someone is just that rambunctious.
Another idea would be to have people write down questions and give them to you on index cards you pass out at the beginning. Barring incomprehensible chicken scratching, you can eliminate the rambling altogether.
Anyway, those are some ideas just off the top of my head. (my background is in cognitive psychology, fwiw).
Interesting post!
Thank you Kimber an and Clara.
ReplyDeleteI remember a time when asking an audience for questions produced nothing but questions - real ones related to the topic.
Clara is right about what drives the opinion discourse. What I wonder about is what has changed that has made this behavior a norm rather than a rude abberation. And how to change it back, of course (being an SF writer).
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
Thank you Kimber an and Clara.
ReplyDeleteI remember a time when asking an audience for questions produced nothing but questions - real ones related to the topic.
Clara is right about what drives the opinion discourse. What I wonder about is what has changed that has made this behavior a norm rather than a rude abberation. And how to change it back, of course (being an SF writer).
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/