The Outerview Interview

Our zeitgeist goes by many names.  The knowledge economy. The information age.  Infobesity. The new media age. Whereas the Industrial Revolution heralded new means of production, our current era builds upon those and relies heavily on knowing something fast, easily and incessantly.  The sensation of something at the tip of our tongues no longer exists; everything is at our fingertips.

Yet we have lived in our digital age–short as it has been–long enough for another term to become prominent: information overload.  It isn’t enough that we watched a movie last weekend; we have to know its box office receipts, the studio contracts of its actors, its projected sequel, how it’s doing in China.  Some information we seek, some come unbidden: we are continually notified through our phones, Twitter, IG, feeds, that anxiety that people know something you don’t and should.

So the phrase, “ignorance is bliss,” has become not just an aphorism.  For some, it could be a philosophy of life. Don’t we all need a haven information cannot permeate? Headspace where there is merely space?  Witherly Heights has found a slice of heaven for you.  We have found and interviewed two Early College juniors–Ananda Guha and Vincent Huang–and found their scant knowledge of pop culture brilliant and refreshing.  Witness their information underload and rejoice. Being an outsider has never seemed so good.