Can you name the 47 countries of Europe? Name all 23 members of the England World Cup Squad? Recall 22 words with a suffix ‘cle’? or even type 1 to 100 in a mere 1 minute? These are just some of the few (of what appears to be millions) of interactive quizzes online that you can take when life is getting you bored. Marketing itself as a ‘mentally stimulating diversion’, Sporcle is a trivia quiz website which was set up in 2007 by whizzkid, Matt Ramme. Initially set up aiming toward the older market, it seems it has had more of an effect on the youngens, thirsty for knowledge and lets face it, the biggest procrastinators in the land.
A lot of basic knowledge is lost when you leave your education years as people tend to dismiss the subjects they don’t find appealing. But ultimately, a deeper understanding of the world, (even if it is being able to recount the 47 countries of Europe) is useful, prompting people to take a greater curiosity in things they once deemed irrelevant or ‘not applicable’ for their careers.
So now, all thanks to Sporcle, I consider myself vaguely geography literate (even though I often am left feeling quite humbled as most of the quizzes are impossible). Sure there are those games which are just for fun with no real educational purpose. I mean I really don’t think knowing the opening lyric to 22 of Lady GaGa’s songs is going to get you far in life but there’s no doubt about it, its a good way to kill time. Surprisingly, it has this remarkable ability to get you frustrated when the game doesn’t play your way.
It’s addictive and inexplicably fun deceptively tricking you into learning. LR
No comments:
Post a Comment