The notion that consumer-generated content lacks authority is not a new one of course. Wikipedia has been in the middle of this storm for a while now, and then there was that recent report (I wish I could remember where I saw it) about the proportion of web content ranked highly in search results that is generated by teens.
This morning I found this collection of bad user-generated Amazon.com reviews of great books (that is, books commonly understood by scholars to belong in the canon of great literature).
Does authority matter outside the context of scholarship or government?
I started a new job recently. This came with the usual changes – new office, new policies, processes, people – but one of the peripheral changes is a new set of coffee and lunch options. Tully’s is the coffee spot on my new block. The other day, I stopped in for the first time and joined the queue. I was listening to my iPod and engrossed in a magazine article, so when my turn came, I hadn’t looked at the menu at all.
“What can I get you?” the woman behind the counter repeated.
“Uh… just a coffee. Medium I guess.”
“You mean ‘grande?’”
“Uh,” I squint up at the menu, “yeah, grande I guess.”
I have a problem with this. What’s wrong with English? Small, medium, large? And doesn’t ‘grande’ mean large? So why is ‘grande’ the medium size? And what about ‘tall?’ Tall is small? Is ‘tall’ an Italian word too?
Today, I took my car to the nearest Shell station to get it smog checked – a bi-yearly(?) ritual for drivers in California. The friendly folks at the Shell station took one look at my registration renewal paperwork from the California DMV, however, and said, “oh, you’re test only.”
Me: “What does that mean?”
Shell guy: “It means they’re picking on you.”
[beat]
Shell guy: “Seriously, it means we can’t do your smog check. We’re not allowed to do ‘test only’ checks. I’ll call the guys across the street.”
Long story short, the banner on the Shell station said “Smog Check Center,” while the one across the street said, “Smog Check Center: Test Only.” The difference, apparently, is that the test-only center can’t fix your car if it doesn’t pass the test. Now follow along kids, because here’s where it gets stupid…
Based on data collected by the California DMV, cars most likely to fail the smog check are flagged for test-only checking. That’s right, cars most likely to NEED FIXING to pass the smog check must get their smog checks done at the places that CAN’T FIX THEM.
Sweet infant Jesus.
Anyway, mine passed (yay), so next I visited the California DMV website where I was greeted by this monstrosity (direct link in case it goes away from the DMV home page).
Rock on DMV!
