40 Interesting Facts About Practically Everything You Might Not Have Known, Shared By This Instagram Page

The idea of ‘fun facts’ is a lot older than the internet. Some readers may recall the ‘real facts’ Snapple would put on the bottom side of their bottle caps. These were short little factoids for people to read and were, for the most part, inaccurate. For example, one fact claimed that broccoli is the only vegetable that is simultaneously a flower, despite the fact that, for example, cauliflower (it’s in the name) is also a flower. 

They also had the so often incorrectly repeated ‘fact’ that the average human will eat at least eight spiders during their lifetime (with, no doubt, Australians eating more). The Scientific American debunked this idea long ago, but it has somehow persisted with regular discussions on why spiders wander into our mouths. Even so, this demonstrates a good application of the knowledge that we really do like hearing some trivia, though I doubt anyone actually bought a bottle just for a fact.

This fascination also extends to other activities, including board games. ‘Trivial Pursuit,’ for example, where players compete against each other to recount, well, bits of relatively unimportant information. The game itself dates back to the 1980s and is still around today, which is unsurprising, seeing how much we humans value the ability to recall obscure sitcom characters and the birthplaces of various athletes.

‘Fun facts’ are actually just a positive, PR spin on a run-of-the-mill factoid. As inhabitants of the information age, we really can access a whole plethora of information at the tips of our fingers, indeed, we have so much information that it’s easy to get lost. Hence terms like ‘factoid,’ designate data that really isn't that important or may not even be entirely accurate. If you want to have a fun fact about factoids, some style guides suggest the infinitely cute ‘factlet’ as a better alternative. You be the judge.

If you are particularly skilled at trivia, then consider trying your hand, or brain, at the world’s largest trivia contest, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Some years, there are over ten thousand participants, all trying to showcase their knowledge of things that take about two seconds to Google. Speaking of which, since they can’t really referee a town’s worth of people, the organizers choose to instead phrase questions in such a way as to limit a potential cheater's ability to ask Google or, God forbid, Bing.

Should you decide to try, you should prepare by memorizing as much data about a specific topic as possible. For best results, make sure you communicate what you are planning to focus on with your team, so you all don’t end up sharing perfect knowledge of the original cast of M*A*S*H and little else. A common memorization device is a mnemonic, where a person attempts to ‘match’ data with information that can help recall it. Acronyms are a great method. 

We wanted to know if a person can develop their ability to retain information and if is it possible to improve their attention span and Emma Cahill, Ph.D. was gracious enough to help. "We can retain more information for longer if we try to make links across ideas. This is called “Elaboration”, where we make multiple associations between things that you want to memorize. Our attention span depends on a lot of factors, including how we are feeling at the time, the most robust approach is probably to remove distractors rather than trying to increase focus. Put the phone away!"