Electric Symbols: Internet Words and Culture
John Fraim,
Jun 05, 2002
It takes about two thirds of the article before the author gets to his interesting point (which is not even hinted at in the abstract): context preceeds content. As the author asserts, "The context of today is the content of tomorrow." I submit that this is also true of learning: you can't get people to learn the content until you have first established a context. The context, moreover, is expressed in the person's interests and expressions (as, on the net, expressed by previous Google searches). Further, "We argue that narrative and words associated with place, space and time are contextual words. As we note, they are words in the outer orbits of products that comprise the overall brand or the settings for products. The collective psychology of a particular culture first finds a context and then creates content in the form of products, people or events to inhabit its contextual environment." Put this one down as one of the better insights of the year, marred by one of the worst abstracts of the year (some editing and rearranging would not have hurt either).
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