By Adam Wakefield
The report, by
Discovery Insights, follows other reports such as
Species: The Changing Faces of Men and
She: Her Search for Happiness.
Presenting The Age of Curiosity at Multichoice City in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 31 May, Lee Hobbs, vice president of channels, emerging business at Discovery, said the report came about because they “wanted to understand how curiosity works today”.
“Are people still curious? How does curiosity help them navigate through information clutter? How does non-fiction content help satisfy this curiosity?” Hobbs asked a cinema comprised of colleagues, along with media and marketing professionals.
As alluded to by Hobbs, the report’s conclusions, derived from 21 000 surveys completed by people between 16 and 55 across Germany, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Romania, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, were illuminating.
The Age of Curiosity puts its front foot forward in its introduction by stating: “While the original Renaissance was brought about by a few geniuses and the princes who bankrolled them, anybody can take part in this one. You just need to engage all the different modes of curiosity.”
“The citizens of the Age of Curiosity aren’t drowning in a sea of information; they’re splashing around playfully in it. They’re admired by their peers, unafraid of the future, making the most of the opportunities presented to them by every medium. They are the New Renaissance People.”
A characteristic of the New Renaissance person is the rise of generalism. While online knowledge has made it much easier to become an expert in one thing, it is knowing a little about a lot and being able to see ‘the big picture’, which is prized among those who responded to the survey.
This is evidenced by 78% of respondents agreeing with the statement that they liked to think of themselves as persons with good general knowledge and 85% agreed with the statement that it was easier to understand things when you connect the dots.
“People admire breadth of knowledge rather than depth. Being well-read is important, as is having a wide professional experience – if you have a portfolio career you’re more admired than having followed a single career path,” the report states.
“It’s all about seeing a bigger picture. Anybody can be a specialist – you need to be an intelligent generalist to impress.”
The five modes of curiosity
According to the report, there’s no single trick to accomplishing intuitive comprehension. People today have a “repertoire of techniques for putting the world information to work for them”.
“The real key is in applying a mixture of modes to help navigate the abundance of key information available and have fun doing so. Because, yes, there are different modes of curiosity. Five, to be precise.”
These five modes are:
- Fact farming – “Knowledge for knowledge’s sake has a special buzz of its own. Our inquisitive nature rewards us when find out anything new, whether it’s useful or not”;
- Phone a friend or a stranger – "New Renaissance People don't just Google every answer - they aren't afraid to ask around";
- Undemanding downtime – “Sometimes it’s pleasurable to go over familiar territory”;
- World investigations – “The best knowledge comes from our own experiences of the world”; and
- Rabbit holes – “Have you ever followed a trail of enquiry through countless links on Wikipedia, moving onto specialist books, looking for documentaries on the subject? Then you’ve fallen into a rabbit hole of knowledge”
In South Africa, phone a friend or stranger was the most recent mode of curiosity at 39%. This was followed by fact farming (17%), undemanding downtime and worldly investigations (both 16%) and rabbit holes (12%).
Arguably the best thing about the The Age of Curiosity, as the report itself states, is its attainable ubiquitousness.
“The good news is, anybody can learn to use all five of them [modes of curiosity], and become a New Renaissance Person”.