Context

In one of my previous articles named “Interpretation“, we talked about how context is extremely important for correct interpretation of any piece of information we receive. Today, we will take that a step further and dial down on how and why, context becomes an important facet for human intelligence.

For me context is the key – from that comes the understanding of everything.

– Kenneth Noland

I have always been interested in linguistics. Specifically, I have constantly aimed to improve my proficiency in two languages: my mother tongue, Hindi, and the corporate mother tongue, English.

I may not still be an expert in either language, but I feel like I have done well for myself as a speaker in both of them.

English has always been a sizeable component of my life. I started studying in a private school, and then moved to a public school, which gave me solid ground in the English language. Ground that was firm enough for me to build upon and use it to get decent scores in examinations.

Thanks to the decent scores, English teachers used to like me. So much so, that my name was used as the subject in one of the letter questions we were supposed to write in examinations. A while back, I went back to my school for some documents.

While my teacher didn’t recognise me, I remembered her in intricate detail all because of that incident and my love for the language, for which she was in part responsible. In the moment, I felt that I could really do something with the language, as my career.

While fate had other plans for me, I still love the English language, and I try to channel my love for it through these weekly articles. Now the language offers us a multitude of ways to express ourselves. It helps us connect with people with whom we may have nothing in common, except for the language.

One thing that we will all concede is that we live in the express age, where we are in an endless rush. Consequently, we use a plethora of words without the most important aspect of intelligent communication.

Context.

I can quote an immense volume of illustrations in today’s modern age, where we have all the resources in the world, and yet misinformation is just as rampant a phenomenon as it may have been in the pre-internet age. But information isn’t the subject of discussion today, language is.

I urge everyone to view any “gotcha” newspaper, social media page on any website you would like or news channel, and I can guarantee everyone will agree with me on this one. They are curated to captivate us, telling us an epic tale about a person or an occurrence in the most tantalising fashion possible.

The language they use to describe an instance, could either make your blood boil or make you a lifelong proponent of the same party. They use fancy colours, short videos, easily digestible content to hook us on to them for the longest time possible.

The thing about media today that we fail to understand is that media are no longer channels with the agenda to educate or inform us.

The agenda of most media today is to grab our attentions for long enough so that they can make money off of us.

The term “attention economy” should be evidence enough of this. In a capitalistic society, I cannot argue against the logic of people making money in any way possible, that’s the best route of ensuring sustenance.

What we fail to register though, is that monetising human attention at the cost of context is the best way to drive society to ruin.

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one. 🙂