‘Nitty-Gritty Crack’: Unasked Questions Lead to Anxiety
By: Pablo Lacasia
Tags: Trivia, Funny, Nitty Gritty, Questions, Games

Why is it so addicting to answer trivial questions? I start with E: and expand. The reasons I find are that it distracts us, dumps us out of ourselves, serious problems doze off, and rocks us like a boat in calm waters. We can spend hours playing just for the fun of it, whether or not there is an award. Playing gives us pleasure, instant gratification, we learn, we socialize, we develop our personality and get a little happiness. It’s valuable and healthy. Playing is too good!

Entertaining ourselves, as participants or spectators, has been something that television perfected since its inception and evolution with Pronto Raffaella! from Italian ‘La Carrà’, to ¡Hola Susana! from the Argentine homonymous Giménez, to Steve Harvey, Jeopardy! and a very long etcetera. Television channels were the ‘Gamelords’ of questions and answers in the 20th century until Trivia Crack disembarked. An online app without the divas or the stars of the small screen. Without schedules or limits, now the star is the user, cell phone is the remote and the advertising continues to bother us as much or more! than before.

A phone. A game released at the end of 2013. Worldwide success! The most downloaded year-end game of 2014. Almost 1 billion downloads reaching 2021. Its extreme popularity can be attributed to the Question Factory were anyone can suggest, rate, and translate questions for them to enter the game. Users are able to see the questions that have been approved and translated, as well as those that are still pending approval. Something like a collaborative mini Wikipedia or as coordinated nanomites GI Joe style that spread exponentially.

Máximo Cavazzini (owner of Etermax, the mother company of Trivia Crack) leveraged its success using mobile devices: “Mobile is not the future, mobile is the present. Companies that do not understand this are missing out on exposing users to the message of their brands in the most effective way” said its CEO at the time. It is good not to agree that the permanent bombardment of the user is the most effective way for a brand, business or company. But Etermax success speaks about their strategy. My opinion in Incognito: genios del No-Marketing speaks more about my claims than about my trophies. But, success and utility kill fantasy. Something similar to the relationship between Louis Van Gaal and Juan Román Riquelme on that elegant Barcelona from 2002–2003.

A: Because it lets us be useless (Jaya Saxena)

So, then we come to the first option. Flowing through games is useless. In a society that awards a disproportionate premium for use, utility, and practicality, playing trivial questions and answers is easy, but unproductive. We all know something about something. We all have an area where we feel we know quite a bit, and when that question comes up, we finally have our chance to prove to ourselves, for a moment, that we are useful in the idleness of the game.

B: Because is entertaining. The 10 Benefits of Having Fun (Rebecca Crespo)

1. Reduce stress

2. We improve the quality of sleep

3. Increase our creativity

4. It keeps us young

5. We improve social skills

6. It can help heal emotional wounds

7. Improve memory

8. It energizes us

9. Increase productivity

10. Improve your love life

C: Because of our endless curiosity (Grant Currin)

Curiosity encompasses such a large set of behaviors that there is probably not a single “curiosity gene” that makes humans wonder about the world and explore their environment. Although that said, curiosity has a multiple genetic component. Genes and the environment interact in many complex ways to shape individuals and guide their behavior, including their curiosity.

D: Because it is a brain training method (George Page)

By answering questions and learning, we are improving cognitive skills. Retaining information on topics that interest us is like an exercise for the mind that allows us to expand intelligence and improve mental abilities. This leads to greater creativity, innovation, and problem-solving skills.

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Now why don’t we like to ask ourselves unique, profound and really difficult questions? Because this is a major challenge to our temperance. The reasons I find are that it overwhelms us, turns us inward, awakens serious problems and makes us dizzy like a boat in stormy waters. We cannot spend more than a few minutes in that state, whether or not there is a reward. Meditating, brooding, reflecting annoys us, we dislike it, it seems that we do not learn (but we experience the greatest possible education), we tailor the moment, we develop our personality and we obtain peace, happiness, harmony and splendor.

Playing Nitty-Gritty Crack is not something that necessarily makes us feel unskilled, is not entertainment in the manner of a game, and is not a mere act of curiosity that disproportionately improves our cognitive abilities. Just thinking about asking ourselves these questions gives us abundant anxiety. But questions cannot go unanswered unless they are asked first. And there is much worse anxiety, much worse insecurity, that comes from being afraid to ask the right questions, because they can go unanswered. One of the moral ills we communicate with each other in society comes from huddling in the pale light of an insufficient answer to a question we are afraid to ask. And that anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. (Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island)

What are those questions we are afraid to ask? The first that comes to mind is “Who am I?” Immediately, pulling on our pants: “What have I done here on Earth so far?” and then, “Is it enough?” (Angela Doll Carlson)

For the Trivia Crack you have to think carefully, respond quickly, win with revelry. For Nitty-Gritty Crack you have to ask with tears, seek with obedience and knock with patience. Play is necessary. Answer the essential questions too. Betting fully on the interrogations of the almost impossible would be something that we love as much as the trivial.

Those questionings lead inevitably to these adapted paradoxes form Thomas Merton’s No Man Is an Island:

We become ourselves when we die to ourselves.

We win only what we give up, and if we give up everything, we win everything.

We cannot find ourselves within ourselves, but only in others, but at the same time, before we can go out towards others, we must first find ourselves.

We must forget ourselves in order to become truly aware of who we are.

The best way to love ourselves is to love others, but we cannot love others unless we love ourselves.

But if we love ourselves in the wrong way, we become incapable of loving anyone else. And, in fact, when we love ourselves unjustly, we hate ourselves; If we hate ourselves, we cannot help but hate others.