Engineered Meanings

// August 16th, 2007 // Brain Dump, The MINeD Field

Fellow Torontonian Stefanie let us know of this “World Clock” over on Poodwaddle.com.

Although a very nicely designed clock, I wonder if the world really needs it.

Yes, yes, it brings awareness to the problems in the world, however, that is just my issue! At what point do we stop focusing on the problems and start focusing on the solutions?

Every single person that goes and views the clock comes away a little depressed. Those who don’t must be able to look at the 2% of the content (Births) and feel good that there are more babies in the world. (?!) That’s right, out of 50 items tracked, 2% is actually considered POSITIVE while the remaining 98% is decidedly (and intended to be) NEGATIVE.

I find myself asking the question: Why so much time on a downer, and not an upper?

Could a clock not have been created that shows (for example):

  1. Cancers Cured
  2. Diabetes Now Managed
  3. Swimming Lessons Taken
  4. Sought Help Rather Than Killing Themselves
  5. Condoms in Use
  6. Little Malaria Pills Taken
  7. Acres of Improved Agriculture
  8. Species Discovered

And the list goes on. Yes, I do hear the arguments welling up inside about the fact that we must draw attention to these problems in the world, and yes, I do agree that more people should know what is going on around them, but is this the way? In order to solve the challenge, do we focus our attention on the challenge, or do we focus on the solution? We know what the challenge is and we know why it is a challenge, yet where is the progress meter?

Changes in the world and changes for the better are happening constantly, and not by accident. We are aware of cancer, suicides, extinction, and leprosy and yes, there are numbers to go with them – heck, absolutely anything can be tracked, yet are these the numbers we want to be tracking?

Should we track the number of times you didn’t tell your significant other that you love them, or do we track the number of times you did?

Should we track the number of times you didn’t simply smile and say ‘Thank you’ when offered a compliment, or do we track the number of times you did?

Should we track your selfish acts, or your generous acts?

Should we track the bad things about your life, or the good things? What? The good things?! But if we take the bad stuff, make it into a fancy clock, and put it on the internet, surely it must be a good thing, right? It will make people more aware of the problems in your life, the number of incidents so far this year/month/week/day, and we can just watch the numbers grow! Won’t the world THEN be a better place? Oh, it won’t? Huh…

So then why do we accept the double-standard? The reality is that they are just simply numbers and we are the ones who are attaching meaning to them. If there was a number below ‘Cardiovascular Diseases’ that was increasing at a faster rate and was labeled “Cured Cardiovascular Diseases’, would we not attach a different meaning? The challenge is that there is no comparative information given, and the engineered meaning is that this clock is bad – fascinating – yet bad.

“Engineered Meaning”, in the negative sense, is quite possibly the worst thing going. It relies on speculation, and the general pessimism of society to attach meaning where there ought not to be any.

Take for example, a police car going down the street with it’s lights flashing. For most, the first reaction and meaning would be that something bad has happened and the police are responding. Could be an accident, a robbery, a domestic disturbance – whatever. Now it could be possible that that particular car is racing ahead to the next intersection to stop traffic to let the charity marathon pass through… All that happened is that a police car went by with it’s lights on – what we attach as the meaning is entirely up to us.

When we look at the clock, right now (as of my “now” when writing this), there were 700 injuries due to fire. So, is that good or bad? Well, bad if you’re one of the 700, yet good if you’re number 701 and the number is down from it’s usual 710.

Without comparative data, the numbers provided in the clock are simply that – numbers – no more, no less. With engineered meaning however, they have been selected so that the majority of the population will look at them and attach negative meaning. There is no comparative information to state facts that “yes these are bad numbers because they are up from last year” – no, they are just numbers.

Be careful what you attach meaning to and make sure it is indeed YOUR meaning… it affects how you view the world around you.

—

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Engineered Meanings by William Tully is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at tully.ca.

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15 Responses to “Engineered Meanings”

  1. unwesenNo Gravatar says:
    August 16, 2007 at 4:18 pm

    Nice one – and very true. I’ve thought myself a number of times that people who raise awareness to problems aren’t really reaching their target audience because they’re focusing too much on what’s wrong, and too little on what can be done. And their campaigns are clearly engineered that way. I suppose it’s hard to raise money to fight poverty without showing people living in squalour, to pick an example, but damn, take a few percent of my donation and put them into better advertising campaigns, and everyone comes away better.

    Right. It’s too late to form more coherent thoughts than that, though…

  2. Robert HruzekNo Gravatar says:
    August 16, 2007 at 8:04 pm

    Hey, I’m with you on this one, Tully! I thought the same things after viewing the clock. I’d like to see the one you described!

    You know, for a light-hearted look at time, you should visit http://www.humanclock.com

    Now there’s a clock that’s fun to watch!

  3. William TullyNo Gravatar says:
    August 16, 2007 at 8:37 pm

    If you look at sales techniques, sure, you start with the pain, and then the solution that you have to it… that they’re going to pay you for.. ONE pain and ONE Pleasure.. Not 49 Pains and 1 Pleasure.. Engineered meanings drive me crazy when used to make people feel bad.

  4. William TullyNo Gravatar says:
    August 16, 2007 at 8:38 pm

    Thanks Bob.. Just spent way too much time on that site, and I now have a nicely printed pocket-sized version so I know what 24h photos are missing.. :P

  5. ShirleyNo Gravatar says:
    August 17, 2007 at 6:37 pm

    Love this post. Yes! I totally agree, and I would never have even thought about it if I hadn’t read it here. Thank you!

  6. zunnurNo Gravatar says:
    August 18, 2007 at 10:52 pm

    In my place, ‘they’ are very good in counting the number of accidents each year. Everytime a bus accident happened with a lot of deaths, they would come up with a solution which will be implemented immediately, for example, each long trip must have 2 drivers, or each bus should have a black box installed. Unfortunately, after a while, there won’t be anymore monitoring of whatever implemented, and everything would go back to square one. The supplier of whatever parts used would had made a good fortune.
    And recently, another tragedy happened, involving a bus, this was the worst one ever happened here.
    And as usual, they ‘woke up’ and started to talk about solution.

    Great post, I’ve been reading your posts and think that your thoughts are wonderful.

  7. TullyNo Gravatar says:
    August 20, 2007 at 5:17 pm

    Hi Shirley, and no problem – glad you enjoyed it and took something from it!

  8. TullyNo Gravatar says:
    August 20, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    Hi Zunnur,

    I’m not exactly sure I follow what it is you are saying, however, welcome!

  9. Pete AldinNo Gravatar says:
    August 20, 2007 at 8:20 pm

    And the police car with its lights flashing could just want to get to the donut shop fast!

    I also hate those guilt-inducing messages that charities rely on. When I was a kid, we used to joke about a poster in our school library that said “While you are reading this, 3 children will die.” We used to turn to newcomers and yell: “Don’t read it, you’ll kill 3 children!”

    (I’m a World Vision sponsor by the way, so please don’t think I don’t care!)

    … and have you read those books on a subject which concerns you which are 80% explanation of the problem and 20% half-hearted attempt at offering a solution? I’m with you Tully. We all know what the problems are, let’s talk solutions.

    Solutions such as … oh, I’m out of space … ;)

  10. Omyword!No Gravatar says:
    August 22, 2007 at 8:01 am

    Tully, this post is related to many things I have been pondering lately. I can get all foamy-in-the-mouth in my political blog and rant about the neocons etc., but in the back of my mind I’m wondering how productive that really is. What’s the solution vs who is the evil doer. But it’s harder to come up with a solution than to sit back and bitch. Statistically, it’s easier to display those negative event numbers than the positive ones you listed. We humans tend to focus on calculating the negative and we blow off the positive. How do you quantify lives saved? I bet there’s a way but it isn’t readily available.

    Anyway, I enjoyed this thoughtful posts and wanted to thank you for stopping by my blog(s).

  11. William TullyNo Gravatar says:
    August 22, 2007 at 8:45 am

    Pete,
    You know why they have forward-facing-dash-mount radar, right? Coffee, donut, radar gun, and only two hands… ;)

    It’s the ‘half-hearted’ solutions that really drive me crazy. If you are smart enough to identify a challenge, you are smart enough to identify a solution to solve said challenge.

    After writing this post, I think I am now more inclined to support organizations who are HEAVY on the solution, and less on the beatings.

  12. William TullyNo Gravatar says:
    August 22, 2007 at 8:54 am

    “it’s harder to come up with a solution than to sit back and bitch” – absolutely Lisa!

    I also thing things like remissions, cures, ‘didn’t die even though only given 2 months to live’, can be used in a ‘positive spin’ clock or anything else.

    I think the challenge is that most of the things listed on the clock have solutions to them (or are at least in the works) so why keep promoting the down-side as if nothing is being done, when in fact, things are being done, and there is progress to show!?

  13. Michael R. RileyNo Gravatar says:
    August 23, 2007 at 1:07 am

    Mr. Tully-

    Yes, it would be wonderful to have a clock simular to the one you describe. But c’mon now! Human nature prefers bad over good. I wish it didn’t, but, frankly, I’m just as guilty about reading the tabloids (including the excellent Toronto SUN) as anyone in line at the local supermarket. As humans, we need a chamge in mind-set. Anyone with workable suggestions is STRONGLY encouraged to push his or her way to the front of the line. Whomever’s in charge of such matters now needs to GO, and GO QUICKLY!

    -Mike Riley

    [at http://aftermidnightpage.blogspot.com ]

  14. TullyNo Gravatar says:
    August 23, 2007 at 9:29 am

    Hi Mike,

    Toronto SUN?! Say it ain’t so! Heck I live in TO and don’t read that trash… Then again, I don’t read any newspaper, and I don’t watch the news either. One of my mentors a couple years back pointed out that VERY little in the news will make a positive difference in your life in 3-5 years, and if something major happens, someone will tell you – guaranteed.

    I agree with your ‘push to the front of the line’ however, I fear that most people with a workable solution do not have the self-confidence to make the push, and to stick with it, especially when it is going against ‘popular opinion’…

  15. The Pulse of the Blogosphere says:
    October 1, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    [...] eMOTIONs – Engineered Meanings – It’s all about context – What about FINITE [...]

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