Digg that anatopism!
Earlier today I saw a yellow poster on the back of a lorry. My first, split-second thought was, "Weird. Why's there a 'Digg This' button on the back of a lorry?"
In a moment of what I shall call 'Gladwellian mis-thinking' earlier today, the universe suggested that I spend too much time on the Net. And digg.com.
Walking back from lunch earlier today, I saw a yellow poster on the back of a lorry. My first, split-second thought was, "Weird. Why's there a 'Digg This' button on the back of a lorry?"
A split-second later I realised it was, of course, just some warning for peddle-pushing, pedestrian-hating red light-runners.
In his thought-provoking book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell argues that a person's judgement can be skewed by too much information around a given subject, and that quick decision-making can be as effective as a decision arrived at after excessive thinking.
By Gladwell's thinking, perhaps my knowledge of the online world clouds my perception of the offline. Maybe not. But it interested me that, at least on some level of my consciousness, my first thought wasn't, "Look out! Lorry ahead!" but "Look out! Social anatopism!"