this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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The Petty One: Optical Media is Bad. It has always been and always will be. We used it for as long as we did because there was no better choice. But when it came to music I went straight from tape to mp3 because I never trusted CD's, and I will continue not to trust CD's.
The Serious One That Might Ruffle Feathers: The entire school curriculum of every country should be wiped out -- And replaced with fifteen years of nothing but reading comprehension. We live in an era where information is extremely cheap but knowledge is priceless. And to go from information to knowledge, one needs to have a well developed reading ability and bullshit filter. There's no point memorising a bunch of nonsense when it is easier and faster to use technology -- We stopped doing recitations when we invented writing, you know? -- What IS important is understanding what you are seeing and recognising lies for what they are.
I don't think I can put into words how much worse my life would be if we followed your second suggestion. There are a great many things I never really wanted to learn about, but I'm incredibly glad I was still taught them - starting from basic stuff (like maths etc) over arts (especially poetry and literary analysis) to sciences (especially physics and chemistry).
I would understand far less about the world, I could never engage as deeply with media as I love to, and I couldn't have built so many things that require holistic insight into our world.
I'd be a far less developed version of myself, because I wouldn't be able to follow my interests the same way.
I must wonder why not. Like, clearly those things are enriching to you, aren't they? Why wouldn't you have learned them on your own terms? Assuming nothing was stopping you? You seem not to be an incurious person? Again, information has never been cheaper, you just have to look for it.
Like I'm not trying to make fun of your explanation or even say you're wrong. Just... Genuinely wondering how come
I wouldn't have known how much I enjoy some of those things. Let's stick with literary analysis - I hated doing that in school, really hated it. It was a slog to get through. Until I one day read something I enjoy, and started feeling the things I learned to analyze. Suddenly the text wasn't just a text, it was a conversation with the author. It made me engage with reading on a different level, and also taught me to utilize the same techniques in my own writing.
But I know myself well enough to know that I wouldn't have been able to force myself to learn that stuff on my own. Writing literary analyses and having them read, critiqued and graded by my teachers was essential to learning it. Yet I would have gone on thinking that it's a waste of my time, had I not been forced to learn it.