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cali

(114,904 posts) Sat Apr 14, 2012, 05:41 AM Apr 2012

Twitter Backlash for People Who Did Not Know ‘Titanic’ Was Real

By Melissa Knowles | Trending Now – 17 hrs ago

The social news-sharing site Reddit has a knack for exposing people and situations. The latest topic of discussion to generate controversy is a series of tweets from people who did not know that the sinking of the Titanic was a real historical event.

Apparently, an entire generation of people associate "Titanic" with the Hollywood blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Here is the disambiguation for you. The RMS Titanic sank April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. The tragedy is considered one of the deadliest of peacetime maritime disasters. More than 1,500 people died.

"Titanic" the film was released December 19, 1997, and was an instant success. It became the highest-grossing film of all time for 12 years, until "Avatar" debuted in 2009.

For all the history buffs reading this, the next couple of sentences may be too painful to contemplate. A couple of the tweets from the uninformed read, "Nobody told me titanic was real? How am I just finding this out?" Another tweet read, "Guys, the Titanic was real! #mindblown."

<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/twitter-backlash-people-did-not-know-titanic-real-163523705.html

18 replies

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Highlight:

Twitter Backlash for People Who Did Not Know ‘Titanic’ Was Real (Original Post) cali Apr 2012 OP

... SammyWinstonJack Apr 2012 #1

a bunch of these were on failblog Tunkamerica Apr 2012 #2

The knowledge of history keeps diminishing hlthe2b Apr 2012 #3

Jay Leno used to do "Jay-walking." He'd ask passersby simple questions and get stupid answers. tclambert Apr 2012 #4

If WW I was The War to End... meaculpa2011 Apr 2012 #12

Because that name became nonfunctional n/t JHB Apr 2012 #15

It was called The Great War. TransitJohn Apr 2012 #16

cali Diclotican Apr 2012 #5

My kids know what the Titanic is titaniumsalute Apr 2012 #6

your home environment? are they readers? cali Apr 2012 #7

Probably a combination of school and home titaniumsalute Apr 2012 #13

Pretty soon our kids won't know about Thomas Jefferson, who was a real secondwind Apr 2012 #8

There's already an infrustructure promoting the rewriting of the Founding Fathers... JHB Apr 2012 #17

This is nothing! AlbertCat Apr 2012 #9

It must have been real, H2O Man Apr 2012 #10

I'm not surprised. HappyMe Apr 2012 #11

I wonder how many of the people who know the ship was real Orangepeel Apr 2012 #14

My kid, in early 80's,. maxed his history test because... dixiegrrrrl Apr 2012 #18

SammyWinstonJack

(44,130 posts)

1. ...

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 05:47 AM

Apr 2012

Tunkamerica

(4,444 posts)

2. a bunch of these were on failblog

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 05:47 AM

Apr 2012

hlthe2b

(102,397 posts)

3. The knowledge of history keeps diminishing

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 07:04 AM

Apr 2012

Three is no excuse for such ignorance, but it is increasing. What is frightening is that no knowing about he Titanic is the LEAST of their gaps in knowledge. Uggh.

tclambert

(11,087 posts)

4. Jay Leno used to do "Jay-walking." He'd ask passersby simple questions and get stupid answers.

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 07:09 AM

Apr 2012

My favorite was "Which came first, World War I or World War II?" Semantically, the two terms are identical except for the numbers. So it's like he asked, "Which came first, one or two?"

And one guy said, "Oh, I just saw a movie about World War II, and it happened a really long time ago, so I'm gonna say World War II was first."

I guess it's like the philosopher said, "Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat the class in summer school."

P.S. Somebody make sure to tell them Avatar is still NOT real.

meaculpa2011

(918 posts)

12. If WW I was The War to End...

Reply to tclambert (Reply #4)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 08:57 AM

Apr 2012

All Wars, why did they give it a number?

JHB

(37,163 posts)

15. Because that name became nonfunctional n/t

Reply to meaculpa2011 (Reply #12)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 10:07 AM

Apr 2012

TransitJohn

(6,932 posts)

16. It was called The Great War.

Reply to JHB (Reply #15)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 10:12 AM

Apr 2012

An appellation I wish they'd still use.

Diclotican

(5,095 posts)

5. cali

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 08:11 AM

Apr 2012

cali

What??? Happened Titanic for real????? What???????

Diclotican

titaniumsalute

(4,742 posts)

6. My kids know what the Titanic is

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 08:16 AM

Apr 2012

My boys are sitting here playing video games. One is 13, one is 7. I asked them if they knew what the Titanic was? The 13 year old said "Yeah it was a huge cruise ship that hit an iceberg and sank about 100 years ago. We even created a voyage map in school." The 7 year old said "yeah the ship broke in half but a bunch of people surrived the really cold water."

My two kids are A-C average kids going to public schools. So how do they know this but so many thousands don't?

cali

(114,904 posts)

7. your home environment? are they readers?

Reply to titaniumsalute (Reply #6)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 08:19 AM

Apr 2012

titaniumsalute

(4,742 posts)

13. Probably a combination of school and home

Reply to cali (Reply #7)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 09:03 AM

Apr 2012

I can say that neither have seen the movie (way too graphic for their ages.) So they know through books, school or environment.

secondwind

(16,903 posts)

8. Pretty soon our kids won't know about Thomas Jefferson, who was a real

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 08:36 AM

Apr 2012

progressive..... he is being eliminated from the TX schoolbook repository. Being replaced with St. Thomas of Aquinas.

Give me a break!

Make sure your kids and grandkids know who Thomas Jefferson was!!!!

"What is good for the Commons, is good for all."

~Thomas Jefferson~

JHB

(37,163 posts)

17. There's already an infrustructure promoting the rewriting of the Founding Fathers...

Reply to secondwind (Reply #8)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 10:19 AM

Apr 2012

...as being "like" bible-thumping evangelicals, not as the Deists most of them were.

AlbertCat

(17,505 posts)

9. This is nothing!

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 08:40 AM

Apr 2012

My downstairs neighbor didn't know who the 1st president of the US was.

"Lincoln?" he said.

H2O Man

(73,626 posts)

10. It must have been real,

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 08:51 AM

Apr 2012

for they made a movie about it.

HappyMe

(20,277 posts)

11. I'm not surprised.

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 08:56 AM

Apr 2012

If it doesn't come in a text, on FB or MySpace....

Orangepeel

(13,933 posts)

14. I wonder how many of the people who know the ship was real

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 10:02 AM

Apr 2012

Think that Rose and Jack were, too.

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)

18. My kid, in early 80's,. maxed his history test because...

Reply to cali (Original post)

Sat Apr 14, 2012, 12:20 PM

Apr 2012

he had read all my Doonesbury cartoon books!
darn kid was ..15 or so, going thru a 'duh" phase and getting bad grades in school, but proudly brought home the
A in history. The class was teaching 1960s/70's period, apparently.
Hats off to Trudeau.

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