The General Obliviousness of the Post-Millenial Generation

[onesteptwostep]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ3RrqBqk14

This and similar videos were posted online before the smartphone age, revealing just oblivious some people were concerning the world affairs around them. Sure, Chasers was more of a satire/comedy show and they most likely cherry picked their questionees, but today with selective news and the slow death of television a more sinister form of obliviousness arises: Japanese young adults who have no idea who Oprah Winfry, Kobe Bryant, and Donald Trump are.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2JhvkzgVGc

So this got me thinking, what really is inside these people's heads? And if this could happen to young adults in a modernized, liberal (in terms of information), and well read country as Japan, just how much worse are the people around the world? It's pretty pessimistic and somewhat... appalling if this phenomena was true across the board, as in if the actual larger population around the developed world did not know these things.

Or maybe we could nervously 'dust this off' as a mark of a modernized nation? ?_?

 

[redbaron]

People in Japan haven't heard of a rapist basketball star, histrionic daytime talkshow host and a real estate tycoon snake come racist politician and therefore: world = fucked

Gimme a break. I mean the world's fucked but this is pretty irrelevant.

 

[onesteptwostep]

Kit Kat bar?

 

[Black Rose]

Like Alex Jones has said. Paraphrasing:

Why are people so interested in the jockstrap size of their favorite football player.

God damn it.

I am American but have no idea who the prime minister of Japan is and never looked it up and probably wont even after I finish my line of reasoning and my username is Animekitty but I can't speak japanese.

I can call you dumb for watching fox news or stupid for being a liberal like Alex Jones calls people but really are we to expect people to worship Oprah and Trump and devote their whole life to studying their life histories. I like to study A.I. and can give all the stuff I know about what I read about M.I.T. and Marvin minsky and the singularity but FFS not knowing who Trump is in Japan is like me telling some guy who sells tupperware that they an ignorant sheeple for not knowing who was at the dartmouth conference in 1955 about A.I. - In my opinion everyone has that group of people whom they know everything about their jockstraps but cannot be bothered to research other people's jockstraps. If you study politics you study political jockstraps. If you study A.I. like me you study A.I. jockstraps. This is just another way of calling people sheeple for stuff that doesn't matter.

Oh my God, who cares - Peter Griffin Family Guy

Sarcasm: If you do not know who Peter Griffin is or Alex Jones then you are ignorant and ill informed about world affairs.

And I am not trying to sound rude or offend anyone but I have no job and I spend 12 hours a day doing research but really I cannot research everything because that is just physically impossible for a human being to do. And I mostly read this forum allot. I unsubscribed to alex jones youtube channel because of information overload. And I could not find the videos from my other subscriptions in all of his spam.

 

[nanook]

what we know has been put there by society.
you think you explore reality on your own, but your curiosities and criteria were still programmed by society. (ever tried to find the best source of brotein, bro?)

there are still different societies or cultures out there.

it's a scary thought, to realize, how difficult it is, to bring individuals under one umbrella. what a miracle, that any society is possible at all, given how uniquely one person could drift of, when left to their own devices.

all of these people who seem so ignorant to us introverts, like bush or operah or any local politician, etc, they merge together in a matrix of overconfident empty competitive but still unoriginal talk to make that happen and we can be grateful, because without their ambitious efforts, the person next to us on the street would fear us, have no hopes of being able to communicate with us about anything and would probably kill us on first sight.

regardless of how smart they are. so, asking people stuff like that is not a competition of originality or brain power, but a contest of belonging.

i realized this, while i was on LSD

culture is basically language, so sharing knowledge of many of the same words is key ...

 

[onesteptwostep]

I should just come clean. The real aim of this topic is to fish videos or stories on other oblivious people around the world.

@AM
The PM of Japan is Shinzo Abe, grandson of a Diet member during WW2.

As for being oblivious to Oprah Winfry or Kobe Bryant I could pass off, but not knowing Donald Trump really comes close to the line of being out of touch. If someone didn't know, let's say, Putin, wouldn't that alarm you a bit? He's one of the reasons why Europe is being so edgy and why the countries (Germany, for one) there are buffering up arms. There's an entire history behind that name. As for not knowing Donald Trump, you could probably guess that the person being asked the question doesn't know any of the other candidates, maybe save Hilary Clinton. This also means the person in question doesn't know the political history behind the US or the figures there either. Yeah sure, not knowing these people or the fields and related could get you by in life, but is this sort of obliviousness acceptable in the 21st century? It sort of shows you as to what extent people really care for and know the world.

These single name pronouns are at the apex of history, theory, culture, and natural and sociological phenomena, such as economics or even something political, like foreign policy.

But then again this obliviousness of the events around the world just could be a sign that the nation has reached a critical point where the common people could get away with life not knowing these kinds of things. I'd imagine someone in Switzerland be oblivious to what country Samsung comes from, and this probably wouldn't affect their wellbeing whatsoever

But beyond this, it's just weird how we have all this tech power, but this same tech power denies people the singularity of media due to its 'you read what YOU want!' engine.

The funnier part is those people in the video knew Usain Bolt and Janet Jackson but didn't know the ones being questioned to them..

@nanook

Excellent ideas nanook, we should plan an INTPf field trip to North Korea to experiment with, and study this theory further.

..!

 

[Pyropyro]

I know you like your culture and all but don't you think that instead of using their time memorizing the names of these people, they would instead memorize the names people that directly affect their lives? They might have their own Oprah, Trump etc. back in the land of the Rising Sun. If your average Joe (not you) can name these Japanese personalities then it's quite fair to shake your head on these Japanese youths.

 

[nanook]

i was all like "don't you get it, this was just a joke"
and then i was like "hm, but what exactly is the joke?"
a form of satirical self-irony, hard to explain.

anyhow, it's scary to see how few people in the age of enlightenment are dedicated to being world centric.

a world-centric person from anywhere on earth, who has internet access, doesn't have to be a trivia expert, but he certainly knows a lot of very basic stuff about the culture of hunns, vikings, indians, a. natives, buddhists, muslim, americans, afrikans, north koreans, pygmies, you name it.

i am from germany and knowing american stuff is not a particular sign of openness to the world, since yous guys have conquered us in 1945, but i also know tony blair and william wilberforce and putin and perhaps you know angela merkel and goethe.

and then there are going to be people who know smart-phones, but have an entirely local mentality anyway. and some of them live in detroit and sniff glue.

 

[Fukyo]

I know you like your culture and all but don't you think that instead of using their time memorizing the names of these people, they would instead memorize the names people that directly affect their lives? They might have their own Oprah, Trump etc. back in the land of the Rising Sun. If your average Joe (not you) can name these Japanese personalities then it's quite fair to shake your head on these Japanese youths.

Yeah, I think it's not a fair comparison, particularly when you take into account how Japanese society is closed off and kinda xenophobic. I think the people of Japan who know English well enough to read western media are probably quite a small minority, and if their domestic media doesn't report on it (and I don't know if it does) how are they supposed to know?

Also, comparing Putin to Trump is also unfair, the latter is a populist large ham, the former is a politician with a real impact on the world.

 

[Yellow]

I only begrudgingly know who Oprah, Trump, and Kobe Bryant are. Why on earth are people from other countries being expected to know them?

I enjoy world history and geography as subjects, but celebrities and pundits are inconsequential in the long run. I'd be more disturbed and worried about their being in/out of touch if they DID know who all the popular celebrities from around the world are (as long as they know the important cats of the internet. That's imperative). If you're busy cramming your head full of who's doing what among people who are barely more than fictional characters, how can you have time to focus on things that are actually important?

 

[onesteptwostep]

I know you like your culture and all but don't you think that instead of using their time memorizing the names of these people, they would instead memorize the names people that directly affect their lives? They might have their own Oprah, Trump etc. back in the land of the Rising Sun. If your average Joe (not you) can name these Japanese personalities then it's quite fair to shake your head on these Japanese youths.

I would have to say I'm not that knowledgeable about the Japanese celebrity realm, but the impression I get from it is that celebrityism died off quite a while ago, and now game and talk shows reign on TV. The old comedians and a handful of actors who managed to go international (e.g. Ken Watanabe) are the ones who catch my eye. Everyone else are no name idols and 'green' (as in young, starting off) personalities trying to take off on their careers.

As for as I know there is no such thing as an 'Oprah' in Japan at all. No talk shows exist where the show philosophy is reconciliation and open dialogue on life issues/problems. I think America is one of the few places on earth where television shows like these exist in that scale.

As for Trump.. well if you have a basic understanding of how Japanese salarymen, and how Japanese men act in general, there would be no room for someone like Trump in Nipponland.

Going back to my side of the discussion, I would have to say that the US hegemony should somewhat pitch in into the personality dialogue in a developed nation like Japan. I mean redbaron knows them and he's from Aussieland, Fukyo/nanook is from central Europe and they apparently know them.

a world-centric person from anywhere on earth, who has internet access, doesn't have to be a trivia expert, but he certainly knows a lot of very basic stuff about the culture of hunns, vikings, indians, a. natives, buddhists, muslim, americans, afrikans, north koreans, pygmies, you name it.

Yes! This exactly. I'm not exactly concerned whether people know Kobe, Oprah, and to some extent Trump, but not knowing these figures somewhat indicate and allude to an obliviousness to other 'basic stuff'.

 

[Pyropyro]

I would have to say I'm not that knowledgeable about the Japanese celebrity realm, but the impression I get from it is that celebrityism died off quite a while ago, and now game and talk shows reign on TV. The old comedians and a handful of actors who managed to go international (e.g. Ken Watanabe) are the ones who catch my eye. Everyone else are no name idols and 'green' (as in young, starting off) personalities trying to take off on their careers.

As for as I know there is no such thing as an 'Oprah' in Japan at all. No talk shows exist where the show philosophy is reconciliation and open dialogue on life issues/problems. I think America is one of the few places on earth where television shows like these exist in that scale.

As for Trump.. well if you have a basic understanding of how Japanese salarymen, and how Japanese men act in general, there would be no room for someone like Trump in Nipponland.

You're proving my point. The cultures are too different from each other that they can't even fathom why they need to learn about these personalities that you cited (in addition those personalities are from the 90's :/ Those kids might have not yet been born by then).

Going back to my side of the discussion, I would have to say that the US hegemony should somewhat pitch in into the personality dialogue in a developed nation like Japan. I mean redbaron knows them and he's from Aussieland, Fukyo/nanook is from central Europe and they apparently know them.

Oh I wouldn't say that they don't know US personalities. They'll probably know US personalities like Lt. Gen. John Dolan instead, the head of the USFJ. A typical Japanese would probably don't give a damn about US politics BUT they would truly care if said political candidate would proclaim how they'll kick their red expansionist neighbors' asses. (By the way I'll probably vote Trump if I were there in the US. Obama ain't got no balls when it comes to protecting vital sea lanes near my country and Japan's. Controlling those sea lanes is crucial if you want to secure energy.)

TLDR: Non-US people are interested in US personalities but not necessarily the ones that you know or care about.

Aren't those people that you cited know how to read and speak English? Translating English to Japanese is really hard and I expect that these kids wouldn't even bother consuming too much English material unless its part of their mandated educational requirements.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

I think that Japanese youth are better off not being subject to the same globalisation and american culture that we are in Europe and elsewhere in the world. There's so much junk coming through and being adopted worldwide based on US culture that it's very detrimental to diversity and innovation of thought.

I know Oprah and Trump, but I may have very well not known them and it wouldn't impact my life meaningfully. I think I know them because I interact with english speakers who were affected by their memes and find these figures more important than I do, so I've acquired them as part of learning the language and cultural lore that comes with it.

I can see this indicating their obliviousness to other basic information, but why don't you find sources proving this lack of basic knowledge instead of assuming it's there based on such remote clues.

 

[onesteptwostep]

You're proving my point. The cultures are too different from each other that they can't even fathom why they need to learn about these personalities that you cited (in addition those personalities are from the 90's :/ Those kids might have not yet been born by then).

Okay, fair fair.

Oh I wouldn't say that they don't know US personalities. They'll probably know US personalities like Lt. Gen. John Dolan instead, the head of the USFJ. A typical Japanese would probably don't give a damn about US politics BUT they would truly care if said political candidate would proclaim how they'll kick their red expansionist neighbors' asses. (By the way I'll probably vote Trump if I were there in the US. Obama ain't got no balls when it comes to protecting vital sea lanes near my country and Japan's. Controlling those sea lanes is crucial if you want to secure energy.)

...General Dolan who? I don't even know him myself. (Do actual Americans know? o_O)

Aren't those people that you cited know how to read and speak English? Translating English to Japanese is really hard and I expect that these kids wouldn't even bother consuming too much English material unless its part of their mandated educational requirements.

It's not in their mandated educational requirements, but if they've been taught English and are living out on their own, I feel as if they should be aware of at least some of those people as they're living out on their own.

---
Oh and bytheway, congrats on your country winning Miss Universe.

I can see this indicating their obliviousness to other basic information, but why don't you find sources proving this lack of basic knowledge instead of assuming it's there based on such remote clues.

Yeah this was what I was thinking too, but I'd assume there's no such polling agency who've gotten clients who wanted to know such trivial things (though it would be an interesting question).

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Yeah this was what I was thinking too, but I'd assume there's no such polling agency who've gotten clients who wanted to know such trivial things (though it would be an interesting question).

Do you need a polling agency? I'm pretty certain there's some research or results for the japanese population. Then it's enough to look what the young japanese do or say or know.
Isn't it enough to look at general knowledge and other test scores and how they compare across?

Or assuming you live in Japan and you know the youth there, you should look for examples of youth in other countries to see if their general knowledge is any higher, or where the gaps are.

 

[Pyropyro]

...General Dolan who? I don't even know him myself. (Do actual Americans know? o_O)

Exactly, this American might not be important to you. But he's important to them.

It's not in their mandated educational requirements, but if they've been taught English and are living out on their own, I feel as if they should be aware of at least some of those people as they're living out on their own.

I think they probably know Russian personalities like Putin instead given the Japanese's tense relationships with the Russians.

---
Oh and bytheway, congrats on your country winning Miss Universe. Yeah this was what I was thinking too, but I'd assume there's no such polling agency who've gotten clients who wanted to know such trivial things (though it would be an interesting question).

Thanks.

To be fair, it's really hard to disprove or prove your claim here given that were working on the nebulous realm of memes.

Oh you might be interested in this collection of famous American celebrities in Japan. It's kind of old but it's weird er... interesting.

http://thepopcorntrick.blogspot.com/2008/10/top-us-celebrities-as-seen-in-japanese.html

 

[DrSketchpad]

Information shminformation.

I've thought about this sort of thing a lot in the past. XKCD (as always it seems) provides something relevant.

Basically, It'd be nice if people were curious enough to seek out information or even realize that they'd be a more useful person by doing so and consciously overcome some amount of apathy that lets them do that. Other than being more useful, who cares?

I wonder if there are certain cultures that are more open to various sources and types of information though.

It seems odd (maybe cool?) when you think about it that media has evolved to scratch people's social itch by making certain people who the general public would otherwise have no idea about become someone's virtual relationship circle by injecting them into magazines, movies, red carpets, etc.

 

[bvanevery]

If you study politics you study political jockstraps. If you study A.I. like me you study A.I. jockstraps.

Jockstrap theory. Love it love it love it. This is like all that "Ring theory" stuff in mathematics, right? Every once in a blue moon running into some math jargon about some funny Greek letter describing some arrangement of numbers for something, never have a clue what any of it means.

and perhaps you know angela merkel and goethe.

I only learned about Merkel because Paris got shot up. I had been ignoring ISIS for 2 years. That event triggered a huge act of "catch up" on my part. Now I'm all caught up. Sad thing is various powers in the Middle East like ISIS just fine, or have more pressing priorities. Like Turkey is more worried about killing Kurds. I don't think I can fix a 10 way war, so I've turned off again.

Oh, and glancing at a headline today, Iran and Saudi Arabia are getting into it now. SOS. I wonder to what degree it's worth paying any kind of close attention, as opposed to checking in from time to time?