Triangulation Strangulation

By Poor William

What say ye Poor William? What the heck is triangulation strangulation?

Mary Action Jackson in the green room at Ground Zero Blues Club. Photo by The Delta Bohemian

In a nutshell, triangulation is used by satellites to pinpoint locations and to send us information based on at least two locational “knowns.” Data from known sources inform and assist with discovering unknowns. Triangulation is essential in our wireless age, but as a society we are over-triangulated to the point of strangulation.

We may only use a small percent of our brain, but that part is beaten to death with bytes of data, often rendering useless the information being disseminated.

Modern technology is encumbering us with busyness and too much information, which over-stimulates our minds, producing shallow understanding and only a precursory knowledge of whatever subjects we are briefly exposed to. Face it—we are grossly ignorant of basic, general information that the majority of any first-world society’s citizens should inherently possess.

Reading and writing scores on the SAT (college entrance exam) are heading in the wrong direction, and this in the computer age, where a gazillion (means more than a handful) bytes of information on any subject are a mere finger stroke away.

SAT scores in Critical Reading and Writing are at their lowest point in over ten years. Elementary and Secondary schools all over the country are engaging students in all types of reading programs, even setting aside instructional school time for students to read non-text books. So, why are SAT scores in these two critical areas so poor?

There is likely no one reason for the downward trend, but surely one possibility is the inundation of bells, whistles, music, TV’s, stereos, cell phones, blue teefus’s, data devices, big screens, little screens, etc.

No Student Left Behind and other grandiose educational ideas and techniques have not fixed what ails us—a lack of critical reading, critical thinking, and non-critical-parenting skills. As a rule, Americans do not have the time, take the time, or covet the time to read more, think more, and positively relate more with others.

Granted, Poor William’s eyes and ability to process ain’t what they used to be, but damn, he can’t keep up with the barrage of images and sounds assailing him every waking hour. Kids today are able to process information more rapidly than Poor William’s generation, but how much of it sticks and to what degree does it hinder necessary reflection?

As a societal entity and as individuals, we are riddled with attention deficit, and it must be partially linked to the over-stimulating media bombarding us nonstop.

Information can be a blessing, unless it strangles and chokes our mind’s ability to retain and use it effectively. Less information learned and retained is more useful than more information not absorbed or remembered.

Let’s get back to the four R’s; Reading, ‘righting, ‘rithmetic, and relationships, before we are a society of gadflies, flitting from one data insertion point to another. pw

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