I had years and years of schooling and after that, I taught. So, I had plenty of time in schools, one way or another. Something I saw many times in school was wasted time. My wife often says I am an impatient person and I guess that is right. But, I do know that schools and many other centers and forms of communication tend toward repetition, unwanted messages and unneeded information.
Different messages than the one sought come to us for many reasons. Ads are a big source. You come to buy some oranges and I want to "quickly" tell you about the wonderful new cellphone or car wax that is now available. Simple lack of information is another source. If the teacher really knew what each student needed to know, she might be able to provide more tailored messages to the students. Not knowing, a teacher will often simply start at the beginning and "cover" the whole subject as though no one in the class already knows some of the information.
Being more specific is not all that easy, at times. Have you ever stood at the fast food counter, trying to get a simple burger but held up by a long interrogation aimed at zeroing in on just what you want? "Want fries with that?" "Whole wheat bun?" "Super-sized?" You just can't eat until you have answered the questions.
Just when I decide that I am going to be even more focused on no distractions and just getting the information I am after, I find that the distractions include some valuable gem, some possibility I didn't know about, that I am quite glad I was told. It only stands to reason that most of the vendors, ads and news items are not going to be up my alley. There is only one of me and millions of them. I guess the modern brain does best when it can check on the incoming stream every now and then, just to see if something worth attending to is being mentioned.
One reason I like print over video messages is that I can usually leap skillfully along, picking up the basic context until my reader brain goes on alert and says to focus in on something that may be interesting.
