“Gutenberg’s generation thirsted for a new book every six months! Your generation gets a
new web page every 6 seconds. And how do you use this technology? To beat King Koopah! And save the princess. Shame on you.”
This quote comes from everyone’s, at least my, former favorite television show, Boy
Meets World. As kids, we laughed until our sides hurt at the dynamic interactions between Cory
Matthews and Shawn Hunter. We watched intently as Cory and Shawn, along with Cory’s girlfriend
Topanga, learned valuable life lessons, from their days in middle school all the way up to their college years.
One of my favorite episodes from the show is when Topanga, Cory, and Shawn all somehow fall into participating in a competition of the brains, although Cory and Shawn aren’t particularly savvy in the areas of science, history, and the like. They eventually turn the television show into a circus where the questions become based on topics such as popular movie stars and comic books. The three gain popularity from being cute and able to answer these questions, which really do not have to do with anything important. Mr. Feeny, their teacher and Cory’s neighbor, is extremely disappointed in this fact, especially after Cory, Shawn and Topanga become cocky because of their recent fame.
This quote, although from a 90’s television sitcom, very much applies to us today. Although as I sit in the library writing this I am surrounded by some very information-thirsty minds, I believe this is not true for everyone, sometimes even myself. As BU students, we are given this great opportunity to be taught and lectured by some extremely knowledgeable and accomplished individuals. We are handed resources such as libraries filled with countless books and journals and endless online articles. We (along with fellow Google users) have access to a search engine that actually searches as you type. We have all of this information at our fingertips, and yet I believe some of us, myself at times included, don’t even realize how great it is.
We go out on weekday nights. We blow off classes (that are certainly not cheap) because
we didn’t do that required assignment for that day or we’re too hung over to get out of bed. We go on Facebook and shop online as we are being taught the history of the Greeks and Romans. We are presented with some of the most valuable information that is available and yet some of us don’t listen to it.
I’m not saying we should all become book worms, eyes wide open, glued to the 12-point font of 1000-page textbooks while the world outside passes us by. If we set up tents and portable stoves in the halls of the library we will never be able to put the knowledge we cook to good use by carrying it with us down Commonwealth Avenue (and beyond!) Maybe we all should just try to keep in mind how, in the ever-so wise words of Mr. Feeny, Gutenberg’s generation would have felt to have all the resources we have, not only in our libraries and lecture halls but even in the palms of our hands.
