Dumbing It Down In Society

Because I'm a little bit of a slacker, I just read the post about dumbing it down. I couldn't help but think to myself how ridiculous but true the middle school writing level stuff was. It really got me thinking about our society in general. We “dumb it down” for everyone. If you think about it, we have to write “Slippery When Wet” on a sign when someone is moping the floor to prevent someone from thinking that a wet floor might possibly be bouncy, or spongy, but certainly not slippery. We have to write “Caution: HOT!” on coffee just to reassure everyone that the coffee they just ordered is probably not cold. When you get a new computer, the first or second step usually tells you to plug it in, as if you just hoped it would run forever without electricity. Even on microwaveable food there are caution signs because the food will come out hot. This discovery peaked my curiosity, and I just wandered to my freezer to check out some of the boxes, and on a certain frozen dinner the box read, “Do Not Eat Plastic Wrap.” Thank you for informing me that plastic was not edible, because I certainly would have chowed down on it had I not been advised. It really kind of makes me sad that someone somewhere actually might need these warnings.