The Dumbing Down of America

In Fully Vetted's blog today, there was a question regarding how much "Vet Speak" is too much - in other words, when does technical jargon get in the way of conveying a clear meaning to the patient. Some of the comments that followed talked about the necessity of "dumbing down" our language in order to be understood by the masses, a conversation I quickly got sucked into. This meant that I lost sight of the larger issue: speaking to individuals about medical concerns is significantly different than talking to them about, say, Shakespeare or the complexities of the conflict in the Middle East. When speaking to a patient, medically trained individuals - whether vets or physicians - can be extremely intimidating. The tendency is to assume that these individuals know everything there is to know, and that we, as the patient who knows virtually nothing there is to know, should just go along with whatever they say. The more educated and confident among us may question a medical professional every step of the way, but there are a great many people out there who were simply not brought up that way: the doctor tells you something, and you do it. You pay the money for the prescription, get the procedure they recommend, never question cost or quality of care.

And so, in medical circles alone, I actually think it is vital for the medical professional to make sure that the client understands every aspect of what is happening. If this means "talking down," then so be it. Ultimately, a patient or a client would much rather feel like an idiot who's been talked down to for an afternoon, than be uninformed about a life-saving procedure or a life-threatening condition.

NOW, with all that said... In every other circle on the planet, I believe it is critical that those who have the ability to "elevate the level of discourse" (as noted in the Fully Vetted blog) do exactly that. In development, it has been proven that parents with a large vocabulary and good communication skills raise children with a large vocabulary and good communication skills. When did it become acceptable to lower expectations in our society, rather than continually raising them? With the Internet, we have at our fingertips the most extraordinary vehicle for communication and education in history, and yet we consistently cater to the lowest human denominator, rather than the highest. If more individuals took ownership of their ability to communicate and elucidate on a global playing field, the world - and the Internet - would be a better place.