Forget history… everyone else does.
Why Popular History May Be Lost
It is only a mild exaggeration to note — that in the mind of the average person:
Evidence is something they see when binge watching episodes of Sherlock.
Primary Sources was a grade school lesson at best or perhaps the title of a book written about the last US Presidential Election cycle.
Investigation is performed by Chris Hansen and may or may not involve the internet and pedophilia.
A Library is a graveyard for old books at the center of most schools, a place to study in college if you can’t afford a $6 latte, or a place in the city where poor people can get free wi-fi.
Research is performed by banks of telemarketers and internet survey banners. It is easily communicated by convenient articles in your news feed that start with “Research shows”. If you missed it, no worries, buzzfeed will incorporate it into a top 10 listicle some time soon.
If all this seems a little over the top to you, go to Google Images and type in Investigation.
Tell me, what does a magnifying glass have to do with investigation? The only technology in their top 20 is a tablet with a bar chart. Sorry, that is a double fail, unless they were reading an in-depth article on the recent ratings of “To Catch A Predator”. In-depth meaning an article that takes at least two pages and has one graph (or infographic).
All hope is not lost — by around result #50 we get the image on the left. It is probably a better result for Research, but at least it made the page. A further scroll down the page will net you dozens more images of a Sherlock Holmes style detectives, hundreds of magnifying glasses, and an occasional image or two with some useful meaning.
Google Is A Tool For Your Convenience
I am not trying to blame Google. They are the masters of the Search algorithm, after all. Search — a concept routinely symbolized by a magnifying glass. Search, a tool that provides the most popular and convenient results for the terms you give it. This is just an example of oversimplification in the name of popular convenience.
Google, perhaps best of all the tech companies, reflects popular demand and popular interest. Of course, Google also provides the most convenient interface to perform a little investigation, to do some research, and to find primary sources… but who has time for that?
I wonder if history has something to say about the arrival of convenience leading to a loss of depth and discipline? It does, but I guess that is old news. We forget most things that are too easy. So in the end popular history may be … popular, but it appears it is neither memorable nor worth much in the way of effort.
And so investigation has been replaced by popular search terms, research has been replaced by popular opinion, and evidence is just an artifact of certain themes of popular culture. The popular majority is now easy, convenient, and ultimately forgettable. The rest, as they say, is history…
