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A very interesting article that relates Search Engines (and other digital information-storing devices) to our spouses and good friends.
Read that first.
You done? Great!
So... are forums like that, as well? I know I've occasionally gone here to find out information that I could have looked up myself, but, for whatever reason, would never have gotten around to otherwise. What do you think?
Are there other similarities? Is this good or bad?
And, despite the title, does this relate to forums in general?
Let's discuss!
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I'd say the forums can definitely qualify as a transactive memory system. I myself maintain more than a few lists for posts I find useful, and many people use the Favorite function for that same reason.
As for being good or bad? I'd like to think that when someone asks for advice on a topic that's been covered dozens of times, that by linking to relevant information I'm helping them access a richer body of information and opinions. So long as they don't take offense and think it brusque, then I'd say it's definitely a good thing.
Indeed, I think one of the most important things that young people need to be taught as they enter the workforce is that if they don't know something they should ask (which includes Googling) rather than wasting their employer's time beating their head against the wall. From that standpoint being able to readily access additional bodies of information beyond that of just your coworkers is definitely helpful. It's akin to the difference of having a small gene pool vs. a diverse one.
I tend to agree, but I'm very interested in seeing what other people come up with.
I know that I've learned things on the boards that I'd missed quite a few times by combing the rules myself... even when I've read the things being referenced.
I think gamer forums are a bit of a different beast in that they're a collective of people who are all (to some degree or another) "obsessed" with the target information, but over-all that creates a similar set of circumstances to a marriage, including the division of "work" as it were... except after the initial division, I suspect we tend to attempt to memorize the stuff ourselves, too. At least more-so than in other circumstances.
I don't use the forums as a big source of information. A few times it has gotten me into topics where I went and looked at outside sources and learned a lot. It's been a driver in that way, but it hasn't been the source very often.
I don't use the forums as a big source of information. A few times it has gotten me into topics where I went and looked at outside sources and learned a lot. It's been a driver in that way, but it hasn't been the source very often.
That's more or less exactly what a search engine is, though, isn't it?
The forums aren't the tool I use to find the information. The forums are the event that causes me to want to go somewhere else to look for it.
The forums aren't the tool I use to find the information. The forums are the event that causes me to want to go somewhere else to look for it.
Interesting. I can see that.
I have personally used it as an information acquisition tool, as well as a "driver", as you put it before (which is a good term, I just wasn't understanding its use).
I think that's one of the reasons that an internet forum differs from other forms of transactive memory, as I alluded to in my above posts: to a point we are all (or many of us are) somewhat "obsessed" with the topic, thus a forum is often used as a method of enhancing personal memorization in addition to a method of collective learning.
Clearly exceptions apply, but that seems to be a fairly common thing.
Tell me, would you liken the forums to a less-instantly addictive tv tropes? Because that's often how I use tv tropes, too (though tv tropes often sucks you in).
One major difference that strikes me is that on the forum, there's generally an entire discussion around the subject, whereas with most electronic transactive memory systems it's more a direct information resource. The discussion element calls to mind more of the "standard" form of transactive memory... storing something in other people... which, ultimately, is exactly what a forum is. People.
Something like TV Tropes or Wikipedia gets addictive because there are direct and obvious links between topics. The links are present precisely because they do relate in one fashion or another. I get the same thing with Youtube, you click one interesting video and there's another on the side that's related and also interesting...
The forums, you get specific topics and even though next to each other, aren't necessarily related (they are, but in a vaguer sense). If you're on the PF general section, the next topic down might not be something you're interested in at all.
The addictive part of the forums is the interaction with others. Once you find the interaction style that your brain likes most, you keep coming back to it. The slowing part of it is that you have to wait for time to pass (for the other poster to respond) to get your next dose.