metabiblio

December 21, 2009 at 8:50pm Comments

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I’ve ever known.

lukewhore:

(via trianglewalks)

I feel the exact same way.

So does Chuck Palahniuk

…and every ad jingle I’ve ever heard.

It is estimated that we are exposed to hundreds of advertising messages a day. A number that dwarfs the quantity of actual conversations we have with one another. Brand names make up a staggering percentage of our vocabulary (The Linguistics of Brands - NPR).

There is nowhere to hide from these pitch-men. For every story our grandparents told us there are a thousand told to us by ad men. They become the enduring myths of American society.

The evidence that people see the world by standing on the shoulders of marketing giants is all around us.

I find the concept that I am nothing but the sum of my inputs absolutely terrifying.

It’s no wonder, then, that Chuck Palahniuk’s characters need to punch each other in the face in order to feel real.

Reblogged from KIARA||9773▷☆♡░

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November 27, 2009 at 11:41am Comments

boing boing: search engines are teachers

Penn State researchers have conducted a study into the use of search engines and conclude that we don’t just search to find out facts, but rather, to learn:

The researchers sought to discover the cognitive processes underlying searching. They examined the search habits of 72 participants while conducting a total of 426 searching tasks. They found that search engines are primarily used for fact checking users’ own internal knowledge, meaning that they are part of the learning process rather than simply a source for information. They also found that people’s learning styles can affect how they use search engines.
“Our results suggest the view of Web searchers having simple information needs may be incorrect,” said Jim Jansen, associate professor of information sciences and technology. “Instead, we discovered that users applied simple searching expressions to support their higher-level information needs.”

Search Engines Are Sources of Learning

(via Boing Boing)