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What could someone learn about you by visiting your home — or by seeing it in the background of a Zoom meeting or video call? Choose three objects and explain what each says about you.
In the article “The ‘Credibility Bookcase’ Is the Quarantine’s Hottest Accessory,” Amanda Hess writes about what books and bookcases, in particular, can say about someone, especially while in the background of a television interview:
Imagine that you are a member of the expert class — the kind of person invited to pontificate on television news programs. Under normal circumstances, your expertise might be signaled to the public by a gaudy photograph of skyscrapers superimposed behind your head. But now the formalities of the broadcast studio are a distant memory, and the only tools to convey that you truly belong on television are the objects within your own home. There’s only one move: You talk in front of a bookcase.
As the broadcast industry shelters in place, the bookcase has become the background of choice for television hosts, executives, politicians and anyone else keen on applying a patina of authority to their amateurish video feeds. In March, when the coronavirus put the handshaking and baby-kissing mode of presidential campaigning on pause, Joe Biden conspicuously retreated from public view for several long days as his team scrambled to project an air of competence from within Biden’s basement. When he finally re-emerged, it was in front of a carefully curated wall-length bookshelf punctuated with patriotic memorabilia like a worn leather football and a triangle-folded American flag.
In April, an anonymous Twitter account, Bookcase Credibility, emerged to keep an eye on the trend and quickly accumulated more than 30,000 followers. Its tagline is “What you say is not as important as the bookcase behind you,” and it offers arch commentary on the rapidly solidifying tropes of the genre as well as genuine respect for a well-executed specimen. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki appears before “a standard credibility wallpaper presentation in the unthreatening homely style.” The migrants’ rights activist Minnie Rahman’s Encyclopaedia Britannica collection “is a lazy hand wafted at convention.” And the British politician Liam Fox’s “bold grab at credibility is somewhat undermined by the hardback copy of The Da Vinci Code.”
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
Look around your home and choose three or more objects that say something about you. For each object, introduce what it is and share why it is meaningful or what it could reveal about you.
What do you think about the idea of the “credibility bookcase” that Ms. Hess discusses in the article? Do you think the books sitting on someone’s bookshelf say anything about that person, even if the person never reads them? Do you have any books in your home that say something about you?
Have you been using video meeting platforms like Zoom during social distancing? If so, explain how you decided on where in your home to appear? Did you move anything around? If so, what did you choose to display — or remove — from other people’s sight? Do you ever sit in a different place, depending on who else is signed in?
A related article — “What Do Famous People’s Bookshelves Reveal?” — contains photos of several well-known people in front of their bookshelves. Take a look through the pictures.
What person, photo or book interested you the most? Why? What, if anything, do you think the book or collection of books says about the person? Can you think of another celebrity that you would like to see in front of his or her book collection? Explain why you chose that person.
Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
