Albert Knox’s thought provoking statement decides that through growth and experience, many adults lose their curiosity of the unknown and so cease to wonder about the bigger questions in life. However, “we are not enthralled” by these questions not solely due to knowing already, but because of influences from media and society which change us to stay within the norm. With such hectic lives and deadlines to meet people often aren’t given the chance to wonder, even if they want to.
I agree that the faculty of wonder begins to diminish as people get older, yet this not totally due to taking things for granted, but as individuals we gain more responsibility through age and so cannot afford the time to stop and ponder. We see that in Sophie’s World after reading the letters from Knox, Sophie becomes completely transfixed and finds herself dismissing friends and lessons at school and even “tried to forget what she had learned.” Many adults would have responsibilities to their family and their job, acting in the way Sophie did would damage relationships and cause redundancies.
As a baby, we have the faculty of wonder, “[we] look around and reach out in curiosity to everything [we] see.” This curiosity is what brings us to learn; by absorbing what is said to us, we would find everything equally important and interesting. A lot of what we learn is based on influences from society, culture and the media. However, all these focus on what is considered “unimportant” in the book, like “how much have our stocks risen today?” or “who won the most gold medals in the last Olympics.” It is easy to understand that if you grow up surrounded by bias in the media, advertising and social attitudes; everyone is influenced into thinking that something else is more important and wondering about the world would be “pushed into the background.” This could be a reason why Sophie’s World is a New York Times bestseller; people who lost their ability to wonder were re-inspired after reading the book and recommended it to others.
In conclusion, I agree that as we grow older some lose the ability to wonder about the world. I find it as a distraction to my work and feel I should spend more time wondering how to complete my next homework task instead. People are busy; the sense of responsibility, expectations from others and alternative influences all lead us to focus on our own short, pointless lives and not ask the bigger questions.
Laurence Wong C2
I agree that the faculty of wonder begins to diminish as people get older, yet this not totally due to taking things for granted, but as individuals we gain more responsibility through age and so cannot afford the time to stop and ponder. We see that in Sophie’s World after reading the letters from Knox, Sophie becomes completely transfixed and finds herself dismissing friends and lessons at school and even “tried to forget what she had learned.” Many adults would have responsibilities to their family and their job, acting in the way Sophie did would damage relationships and cause redundancies.
As a baby, we have the faculty of wonder, “[we] look around and reach out in curiosity to everything [we] see.” This curiosity is what brings us to learn; by absorbing what is said to us, we would find everything equally important and interesting. A lot of what we learn is based on influences from society, culture and the media. However, all these focus on what is considered “unimportant” in the book, like “how much have our stocks risen today?” or “who won the most gold medals in the last Olympics.” It is easy to understand that if you grow up surrounded by bias in the media, advertising and social attitudes; everyone is influenced into thinking that something else is more important and wondering about the world would be “pushed into the background.” This could be a reason why Sophie’s World is a New York Times bestseller; people who lost their ability to wonder were re-inspired after reading the book and recommended it to others.
In conclusion, I agree that as we grow older some lose the ability to wonder about the world. I find it as a distraction to my work and feel I should spend more time wondering how to complete my next homework task instead. People are busy; the sense of responsibility, expectations from others and alternative influences all lead us to focus on our own short, pointless lives and not ask the bigger questions.
Laurence Wong C2
5 comments:
Hello Laurence. First of all I appreciate the fact that you've highlighted the importance of social influence in your post - clearly it is a point that worth taking in account, and demonstrates your personal insight towards the whole "wandering" business, and is something that I agree with too. There are just too many things to worry about in our daily lives that inevitably draws up all our time to do other things - with the opportunity cost which leads us to "cease to wonder about the bigger questions in life".
However, I think to a certain extent even adults think about the world, yet what they ask may not be something that a child would ask. What they ask may be more based upon their daily lives such as "Why am I always in debt and why am I not Donald Trump?" They may seem a bit over the top, but these are questions that adults or even teenages ask which don't have a proper answer to it so far that questions life and the world.
Lastly, I would like to commend you once and again in stating the key concept of the how culture and society has great influence towards the way we think and what to think about.
Hey larry, I agree, to some extent, to the opinions you have communicated due to the fact that i believe, just like you, that the media and society plays a major role in the semmingly loss of the ability to wonder. It's inevitable that as we get older, we start getting more and more responsibilities and because of that, we just dont have the time to dedicate ourselves to thinking and wondering about the world. I believe that you have thought about this question carefully and you have given a very valid argument. there is no question to the fact that the media and the society are involved in taking away our ability to wonder.
Hello Vince and Adi.
Thank you both for your words of praise, I spent a long time thinking of a different idea to others.
On the point that Vincent made. I only said that people seem to lose their ability to wonder about the bigger questions in life. Many people would think about Donald Trump because shows like "The Apprentice" focus us onto unimportant things such as idolising him. Also, those questions you mentioned can be answered as being in debt is often due to personal fault such as over spending and borrowing. Ya.
Hey Laurence,
I believe in your comment you have addressed many good and on the point issues, such as the fact that with age comes more and greater responsibilities, as Vincent and Adrain have mentioned which prevents us from wondering.
You agreed with the statement that we "lose the ability to wonder" as we grow older. However, the definition of losing is "to come to be without (something in one's possession or care)" or "to fail inadvertently to retain (something)" and by agreeing with Vincent -about adults still wondering about certain questions which mainly benefits themselves, you have contradicted yourself in saying that they no longer wonder because they still can, and therefor have not "lost" their ability to wonder.
I, along with Vincent, appreciate your acknowledgement of the media and society’s influences over people to stop “wandering”. I understand that our everyday responsibilities and ambitions have us so pre-occupied that we simply don’t have the time to stop and ponder –I believe this is the truth for most people. However, I still find it quite sad that we’re so focused on our “own short, pointless lives” we never stop to appreciate the whole “point” of it… because there of course there [ is ] a point.
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