Over in GD, a guy’s complaining that too many of the posts on this board are about trivial topics. I brilliantly responded, “So?” (not going to link the thread - it’s really going nowhere).
But it got me thinking, What exactly is trivia? As I pointed out in the other thread, the Economist regularly has articles about politics and economics in such countries as Belarus, Mongolia and Madagascar. Now, events in those countries are likely to never affect, directly or indirectly, the lives of 99.99999999% of Economist readers. Are this articles “trivial”?
I’m not looking for dictionary definitions – I’ve read a few, and they all seem to be dependent on a value judgment, that is, what is important and what is not. Any thoughts on the parameters and meaning of “trivia”?
Sua
I recall reading recently–I believe it was on a SDMB post–that the word trivia stems from the Latin term trivium. The latter refers, IIRC, to a road which subdivides into 3 at a particular juncture. This, of course, provides a perfect place for chitchat between weary travelers bumping into each other.
Since valid arguments seldom emanate from this kind of discussions they are trivial in nature, and not of immediate pragmatic value. Hence the word trivia.
Commenting on the nature of the term, it is of course relative in nature, as you correctly pointed out, hence it being sensible to the context inside which it is utilized. The same aspect might highly pragmatic to a particular person while simultaneously being incommensurably trivial to somebody else.
This means that when referring to something as trivial the person to whom the triviality concerns must be explicitly alluded. Otherwise its usage is meaningless and lacking of any sense whatsoever.
In Roman, then also in Medieval times, the Seven Liberal Arts were divided into the Trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). The trivium had to be mastered before a student could proceed to the quadrivium. So trivia once referred to a core foundation of knowledge common to learned men. Today, I would submit it means almost the opposite–it is not core, not foundational, and not necessarily common to educated people.
That being said, perhaps trivia is any item of knowledge that can be reduced to a quiz show question/answer format.
And I don’t mean that flippantly. The degree of triviality, which is what your post really seems to be about, is in the eye of the beholder.
So maybe the question is, what is your threshold of trivia?
Perhaps trivia can be subdivided into “useful” and “not useful” types. Useful trivia would encompass any and all random facts that you find meaningful and worthwhile. Not useful trivia is everything else.
Trivia skims the surface of knowledge, dipping only a toe into the Pierian (sp?) spring.
Or, trivia is like pornography, I know it when I see it.
Or perhaps even, trivia is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
And if you know your trivia, you’ll recognize the above references <g>