6-17-08: Has the Internet Caused the Extinction of “Know-it-alls”?

I'm what you might call a classic rock geek. I grew up listening to a lot of it because my dad would always tune into classic rock stations. I think a lot of kids my age had the same experience; I just hung on to it. So, despite my having lost a bit of the edge since, I knew almost every classic rock song (title and artist) on the radio, in high school.

But with the internet spreading rapidly to mobile devices, is my strange hobby of classic rock geekdom worth it any more? With a few clicks (or touch pad touches) on a mobile device like an iPhone, one could look up the lyrics to any song and know pretty much everything they'd like to know about it, in a matter of seconds to minutes. Sitting around committing useless facts of information to memory is simply not as cool as it used to be.

But has the internet really caused the extinction of smug "know-it-alls" in general? I'm thinking along the lines of incentives. People are know-it-alls to be smug and arrogant. Trust me, I know. I am one. I am indeed better than you. Ha. Well, at least at naming classic rock songs. But anyway, where is the incentive to be a know-it-all nowadays?

I think it's a matter of being knowledgeable vs. resourceful. Resourceful people are growing in numbers, as it is increasingly easier to access information. But knowledge isn't something you get easy. You do still have to commit things to memory. That's a skill the internet also helps. There's simply more stuff out there to memorize. Before the mobile internet, it was enough to know the title of a song and the artist to impress people. Now, you have to know goofy shit like where the artist is from, or the name of the album the song is on, or some stupid fact like "The drummer still had both arms when they began recording this album." But with the internet, know-it-alls can find this stuff, too! They are simply upping their game.

So the next time some cocky know-it-all spews off some useless piece of information about some minute detail in a conversation, make him earn his title: bust out that iPhone 2.0 and make him go one step further.

I will give you an example from the classic rock realm:

Let's say you're hanging around with some friends watching TV. A commercial comes on with "The Weight" by The Band as the music. One of your friends, a classic rock geek, says "This is 'The Weight' by The Band." You immediately draw to your hip, your iPhone ready (I don't own an iPhone), do a quick Google search (I don't own a Google, either) and say "Well, buddy, from where did 'The Band' get its name?" If he is a true geek, he should know.

In case you were wondering, The Band was originally called "The Hawks," but became known as "The Band" while touring with Bob Dylan when he went electric.