Social networking shows very high intellectual levels ... or does it?

Should you ever wonder what the intellectual capacity of social-networking contributors and participants would be, then consider this. A picture of an anteater garnered 2 345 diggs, or votes, and 172 comments, within a matter of 23 hours and 24 minutes.

In other words, the groundswell of opinion towards a picture of an anteater with a caption of “Fuck you I’m an Anteater” managed to collect an extraordinary number of votes and comments.

What does this mean? Well, actually nothing really. At the end of the day, nothing has changed. The masses have a limited mental capacity. They have no interest in anything that could signify a level of intelligence above zero.

Today, while driving my daughter to a BBQ on the beach, we passed a group of young people in a park having a picnic. This was a wonderful idea — after all, the UK is enjoying extraordinary weather. Who would have thought that 23 degrees could be a possibility in the UK in May.

As part of the picnic props of this group of people in the park, a blow-up rowing boat sat nestled on the lawn. A two-seater number. We laughed as we drove past it and I cracked a joke about the fact that inevitably there would be somebody sitting in it and rowing. After all we are in mad England.

Low and behold, when I drove past on the way home, there was actually somebody sitting in this blow-up row boat, in the middle of a park with no water or lake in sight, rowing with oars. In the air, in case you wondered.

So why should I be amazed that a picture of an anteater waving his arms in the air should collect an inordinate number of votes while wonderfully written stories and articles languish around the lower strata of digg with five or twenty votes (they should be so lucky).

It does seem that the common denominator after all, whether in real life or in cyberspace, is regrettably very low and languishing at the feet of mankind, not even managing to rise to knee level. Oh dear. But no surprise really.