Comments on: Forget H1N1 – Mediocrity is the Pandemic We Should be Worrying About

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:23:15 +0000

@ PHM : No, Alex is right on this. If Alex settled for mediocrity, then the point of this whole article would be meaningless, and only the I statement would be valid. I mean, way to shoot down your own point. I love how just because people take a definitive stance on something, people think that they’re an asshole. This is part of the problem.

By: Joey

Joey — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:26:29 +0000

I completely agree, I think the problem lies in the fact that people nowadays cater to the lowest common denominator, instead of raising expectations in the hopes that people will rise to meet them, people lower them to appeal to a wider range of people, sacrificing quality in the process, and this in turn just makes people lazier and less willing to put effort into achieving things. And that just means the lowest common denominator just keeps getting lower.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:24:35 +0000

You know, I could never quite find words for why Sandra Lee bugged me so much – except of course the fact that my boyfriend has an odd obsession with her show, and he know how to cook real food – but you’ve found the words to describe it. Thanks!

Julia, I revise, rewrite and revise again before posting as well. And if I find typos/mistakes in my writing (and that’s anywhere), I’m the first to delete the original posting and go back and fix it. That being said, I hope there are no typos here…

By: Alex Lam

Alex Lam — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:16:11 +0000

I take incredible care of my cell phones and somehow I still manage to be on my third one this year. This third one freezes up a lot. I am sick and tired of this bullshit! <– semi-gratuitous emoticon!

By: Alex Lam

Alex Lam — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:13:20 +0000

All that being said, there is still absolutely no excuse for Sandra Lee.

By: Alex Lam

Alex Lam — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:12:11 +0000

Length is fine – I almost did this to Zach’s post earlier!

I definitely wasn’t saying that this was the case for everything and that the whole world was half-assing it. I was simply saying that it’s a lot easier than it once was to get away with doing crap work and then getting airtime and recognition for it.

The world is a lot more casual in its presentation of content than it once was – which isn’t always a bad thing. What I was asking regarding settling for mediocrity was more along the lines of life outside of writing. Like… what if I wore something other than sweats and flip-flops for a change?

By: JK Evanczuk

JK Evanczuk — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:32:26 +0000

Oh my God, how did my response get so long?

By: JK Evanczuk

JK Evanczuk — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:31:58 +0000

I can’t speak for everyone, but I write, rewrite, and revise anything I write on the web (whether it’s a post for Lit Drift or a Tweet) approximately eight million times before I ever hit the “submit” button. Wired has a great article about how these new outlets for writing, as casual as they may seem, constitute a new sort of literacy (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_thompson) and Jennifer tackled the issue a few weeks ago (http://litdrift.com/2009/09/09/technology-is-making-our-writing-better/). A lot of people are thinking twice about the writing they are sending out into the world, or as the case may be, into the ethernet. But then again, a lot of people aren’t.

And I imagine the case is different when money enters into the equation. ESPECIALLY when money enters into the equation. With an site like eHow, I doubt many people feel like they’re doing their life’s work as they’re composing guides to getting gum out of your hair or removing blood/coffee stains from clothes. I think you’re spot-on to say that mediocrity runs rampant there. But elsewhere? It depends where you look, I think. There are some books, TV shows, and movies I can think of that have been positively mediocre…but there have also been some books, TV shows, and movies that have floored me.

I’m not too worried about mediocrity in fiction because the cream really does rise to the top. With the exception of a few flukes like Marley and Me or The Da Vinci Code (wait? what? who said that?), most books/tv shows/films/news articles/whatever of note have been truly outstanding. Though we might have to put up with it in the short term, mediocrity ultimately falls by the wayside. Which is reassuring.

As far as mediocrity en masse goes–that is, the stuff you might find during your 2am Googlefests–yeah, it’s pretty shitty. I think it’s always going to be there. Like tabloids. Or cockroaches. I think part of the problem is that we expect real-time content, rather than new content every month, or week, or even every day for God’s sake. New content, on eHow and on 24-hour TV news channels and elsewhere, is expected every few minutes. And since there’s SO much content that needs to be generated, and there are a finite number of good ideas and an infinite number of crap ideas, we’re left with a lot of crap. But you can’t change the fact that mediocrity exists, you can only choose to divert your attention elsewhere.

PS- Speaking of Sandra Lee: http://www.avclub.com/articles/this-cake-will-make-your-eyeballs-burst-into-flame,25176/

By: M. Z.

M. Z. — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:42:28 +0000

I disagree with the first reply.

We DO settle for mediocrity on a daily basis. People who don’t think we do are brainwashed into acceptance and don’t think out of the box. Being ticked off at the sub-par quality of many things today isn’t being an asshole in any way. The author’s sick and tired of bullshit. And I am too!

By: Alex Lam

Alex Lam — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:29:37 +0000

It’s true. I am an asshole.

And I agree that I probably should have said, “I settle for mediocrity” but as I said in the first half of the article, I don’t reread my posts or I may have rewritten it to be as you have suggested.

However, if I stated it that way initially, I can’t help but think my first thought was that I’m not alone in “settling.” I just wanted to say that.