What You Heard
We don't always remember everything exactly as we heard it.
News articles, Facebook statuses, and Tweets all flow in, as an endless digital river of content. There's value in a lot of it, but most things don't stick over the long term.
A friends posts that he just saw a really terrible movie that he hated. "Don't see [Film X]." I read it, it sinks and disappears into the gray matter between my ears.
Six months later, and someone asks me if we should rent Film X. And when I try to dredge up what I heard, I cannot recall any kind of positive or negative association. The only thing I can remember is that I've heard of it before.
It isn't just me; it's people in general. In a world where we're barraged with information, we often lose the significance of each piece of data that enters our brains.
This doesn't quite equate to the whole "all publicity is good publicity" maxim, because I firmly believe that people are inclined to remember extremes. But that does mean that, given the choice to mention something that I really hated and something I really liked, I'll mention the latter. I want the good stuff to stick.
News articles, Facebook statuses, and Tweets all flow in, as an endless digital river of content. There's value in a lot of it, but most things don't stick over the long term.
A friends posts that he just saw a really terrible movie that he hated. "Don't see [Film X]." I read it, it sinks and disappears into the gray matter between my ears.
Six months later, and someone asks me if we should rent Film X. And when I try to dredge up what I heard, I cannot recall any kind of positive or negative association. The only thing I can remember is that I've heard of it before.
It isn't just me; it's people in general. In a world where we're barraged with information, we often lose the significance of each piece of data that enters our brains.
This doesn't quite equate to the whole "all publicity is good publicity" maxim, because I firmly believe that people are inclined to remember extremes. But that does mean that, given the choice to mention something that I really hated and something I really liked, I'll mention the latter. I want the good stuff to stick.