Lear Center's Gabler writes about “The Elusive Big Idea” for the New York Times

Neal Gabler, senior fellow at USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times explaining that the current generation is living in a “post-idea” world. Although we are “certainly the most informed generation in history,” Gabler wrote that when it comes to ideas, “we may be the first generation to have turned back the epochal clock — to have gone backward intellectually from advanced modes of thinking into old modes of belief.” Gabler credits this shift to the rise of social media, which has shifted the focus from significant information to trivial information. Gabler points out that tweeting is “anti-thinking,” a distraction from idea generation. “Instead of theories, hypotheses and grand arguments, we get instant 140-character tweets about eating a sandwich or watching a TV show,” wrote Gabler. “While social networking may enlarge one’s circle and even introduce one to strangers, this is not the same thing as enlarging one’s intellectual universe.” Full story Quoted in: Gabler’s piece was cited on Forbes in “Why did big ideas die?” (Forbes)  “We want information (in a hurry), not ideas” (LA Observed)