People are by nature competitive and most people want to be in the spotlight and acknowledged as the best at what they do. These two are both appealed to in the Guinness World Records since achieving an entry into the records publicly demonstrates that you are the best at a certain activity. One of the biggest problems in recent time is that in a hunt for a recognition people are undertaking more and more unusual activities to hold a record for. As soon as a record has been placed in the Book of World Records there are a number of people who attempt to break it.
This leads to ever more peculiar records being established and then attempts being made on the current record. The biggest problem is that there are no limitations on the types of activities that can be undertaken which can lead to people doing almost anything and claiming a record. The original records were important, for instance the world’s oldest person is something interesting to know for people other than the record holder. There has to be space for records that are facilitated by new technology, but there also needs to be differentiation between genuine records and random activity.
By allowing records that are unimportant the importance of the rest of the records lose their importance by association. Since the Book of Records has changed format the educational aspect has been reduced in favour of pop culture references. The problem with this is that some of the pop culture records can be both subjective and irrelevant. The book has become more appealing to a younger market since the increase in graphics and reduction of text. This hasn’t affected its popularity, but it has reduced its appeal as a source of reference material.
One thing that the Records still do though is to fire up people’s sense of competition when they see new records being set. There is the feeling of “Oh, I’m sure I could do that activity better than them”. This is perfectly epitomised with the recent example of the Dialaphone UK staff attempting to break the recently set SMS World Record. Along with a lot of the people who are sure they could better a current record, they discovered that setting a record isn’t as easy as it would appear to be.
While the Guinness World Records provoke us into trying to break current records, have they not sacrificed their original aim to appeal to a younger audience? While the Book of Records currently holds its own record for best-selling copyrighted book, it is possible that this change may impact their sales in the long run. In the meantime though, the Book of Records will have a ready reader audience in the record holders and their friends and family. At the end of the day it seems as if the book is now there more to put people’s names in print and make sales than it is to be a reference.
Dial-a-Phone has supplied mobile phones on monthly contract to 2.9 million customers, and since it launched in 2000 over 550,000 customers have connected from the website. Further information about the Dialaphone employees’ World Record attempt can be found at:
http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/?p=13
